Energy intensity
- a general shift from industry towards a service-based economy in Europe;
- a shift within industry to less energy-intensive activities and production methods;
- the closure of inefficient power plants, and a move to more energy-efficient appliances.
The following map illustrates energy intensity using GDP purchasing power standards (PPS), which are more suited for comparison across countries in a specific year.
Source: LINKWhat is interesting is that a number of economically more developed countries have managed to decouple economic growth from energy use: GDP has increased while energy use has stayed the same, or even declined.
Case: Sweden
One example of this is Sweden, which is shown in the following chart. The chart shows its percentage change in GDP and energy use per capita from 1995. We see that its GDP has increased substantially. While its energy use has barely changed at all. But it’s not just Sweden. A number of rich countries have managed to achieve this. The UK, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland are some other examples of where energy use has remained flat or even declined.
Source: LINKAs seen in the chart above, it would be wrong to assume that economically more developed countries have only achieved this by moving their manufacturing operations overseas – which would simply mean that other countries are consuming this energy on their behalf. Consumption-based energy use – which adjusts for the energy used to produce the goods we import and export – has also plateaued or fallen in many countries. We see this clearly in the chart for Sweden.
Energy intensity related to GDP
The next figure shows energy intensity using chain-linked GDP values, which are better suited for comparison of historic trends in each country. Compared with a decade ago, all EU countries achieved improvements in terms of energy intensity, while in the last five years (2015-2020) only Malta saw a rise in energy intensity.
Source: LINK
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