Efficiency Youth Tour


The world turns more energy efficient Efficiency trends are expected to continue for decades • By Paul Wesslund


People aren’t just talking about energy efficiency. It’s actually happening across the globe – and there is a way to measure it. It’s called energy intensity, and it is calculated by compar- ing energy consumption to the measure of a country’s eco- nomic production—its Gross Domestic Product. In other words, energy intensity mea- sures how much energy it takes to produce a dollar of economic activity.


In the past 25 years, en- ergy intensity worldwide has dropped by one-third, says the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Adminis- tration (EIA). There can be a lot of reasons for a decline in energy in- tensity: more efficient lighting options, energy use habits, standards for vehicle fuel economy and building codes, and economies based more on services and less on indus-


trial production.


“Energy intensity has de- creased in nearly all regions of the world,” says EIA, “with reductions in energy intensity occurring both in the more developed economies … and in the emerging nations.” EIA predicts energy efficien- cy will continue to improve. The agency’s International Energy Outlook 2016 forecasts that over the next 28 years studied in the report, world energy intensity will decline almost 2 percent a year, from 5.8 thousand British Thermal Units of energy for each dollar of Gross Domestic Product in 2012, to 3.5 by 2040.


According to EIA, more economically developed coun- tries tend to have lower energy intensities because they “have transitioned from relying on energy-intensive manufacturing to using more services-based economic activities which are less energy intensive.” EIA says that in 2015, de- veloped economies used 12 percent less energy per dollar than developing countries.


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Paul Wesslund writes on cooperative issues for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Arling- ton, Va.-based service arm of the nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives.


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