ABSTRACT

Energy is essential for economic and social development of a region or a country. However, consumption of fossil fuels is the major cause of air pollution and climate change. Improving energy efficiency and delinking economic development from energy consumption (particularly of fossil fuels) is essential for sustainable development of a region. Trends in overall energy use relative to GDP (gross domestic product) indicate the general relationship of energy consumption to economic development and provide a rough basis for projecting energy consumption and its environmental impacts with economic growth. For energy policy-making, sectoral or sub-sectoral energy intensities would be useful. The energy intensity indicates the total energy being used to support economic and social activity. It represents an aggregate of energy consumption resulting from a wide range of production and consumption activities. This paper presents intra and inters country trends in energy intensities by comparing the energy consumption per capita and energy consumption per GDP for various countries. The energy consumption per GDP for the energy sector gives the efficiency. Developed countries generally have very low value indicating a higher efficiency compared to the developing countries.

Asiatic countries like South Korea, Israel, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Japan, have GDP per capita higher than 10,000 US dollars and energy consumption per capita ranging from 100 –550 giga joules. European countries like Norway , Denmark and Switzerland have a GDP per capita of 15,000 US dollars. African countries like Libya , Gabon , South Africa , Mauritius , Tunisia and Algeria have GDP per capita higher than 1,000 US dollars, and energy consumption per capita ranges from 25-120 giga joules. The values of the GDP per capita are well spread between 0 and 8000 US dollars in South and Central American countries. Energy consumption per capita ranges from 40-250 giga joules. Oceanic countries like Australia and New Zealand have GDP per capita in the range of 15,000-20,000 US dollars. Energy consumption per capita ranges from 175-250 giga joules. This energy analysis highlights the scope for energy conservation in many parts of the globe, especially in developing countries.

key words: Energy, GDP, and Energy Intensity.