Energy and Climate Summary

Fossil Fuel Production

Coal, oil and gas production all reached record highs in 2023¹.

Global investment in fossil fuels increased by 2.4% in 2024, reaching $1.116 trillion^{2 3}.

Surplus global oil supply capacity will reach unprecedented levels by 2030⁴.

Vitol, one of the most profitable companies in the world on a per employee basis, stated in 2025 that “Global demand for oil will not fall until at least 2040.⁵”

In 2023, 88% of coal, 78% of oil, and 78% of gas was produced by only 19 countries⁶.

“Fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13 million (£10.3m) per minute in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite being the primary cause of the climate crisis.⁷”

Fossil Fuel Consumption

Fossil fuel consumption has reached a record high every year since COVID in 2020⁸.

The consumption of each fossil fuel is forecast to have reached a record high in 2024, and as detailed below, gas and oil are forecast to repeat this in 2025.

• COAL –
  “Global coal use has rebounded strongly after plummeting at the height of the pandemic. It is poised to rise to 8.77 billion tonnes in 2024, a record.⁹”
• OIL-
  “World oil demand growth is set to accelerate from 840 thousand barrels per day (kb/d) in 2024 to 1.1 million barrels per day (mb/d) next year, lifting consumption to 103.9 mb/d in 2025.^{10 11}” 2023 was the first year in which humanity’s rate of oil consumption exceeded 100 million barrels per day. The rate of consumption was equivalent to 664 million litres per hour continuously (175 million US gallons per hour)¹².
• GAS –
  “Global gas demand is forecast to rise by more than 2.5% in 2024, with similar growth expected in 2025.^{13 14}”
• AIR TRAVEL –
  • “As for the approaching end of 2024, demand for air travel has set a new all-time high.¹⁵” Passenger numbers in 2024 totalled 4.87 billion¹⁶.
  • “Passenger numbers are expected to reach 5.2 billion in 2025, a 6.7% rise compared to 2024 and the first time that the number of passengers has exceeded the 5 billion mark.¹⁷” “In 2025, we expect airlines’ revenues to surpass the evocative USD 1 trillion mark.¹⁸”
  • “Over the next two decades, the number of global passengers is projected to increase at an average annual rate of 3.8%, leading to a net addition of over 4.1 billion passenger journeys by 2043 compared to 2023. This would bring the total global number of passenger journeys to 7.9 billion in 2043.¹⁹”

Electricity

The annual quantity of fossil fueled and low-carbon electricity generation in 2023 both reached record highs²⁰.

The quantity of fossil fuelled electricity generation was double that of renewables²¹.

Compared to year 2000, the global share of fossil fueled electricity generation in 2023 had decreased only 4%, nuclear decreased 7%, and renewables increased 10%²². The share of electricity in global energy consumption in 2022 was 21%²³.

Global Warming

The global mean near-surface temperature in 2024 was 1.55°C above the pre-industrial 1850–1900 average²⁴.

The past ten years 2015-2024 are the ten warmest years on record²⁴.

An international team of experts established by WMO has given an initial indication that long-term global warming as assessed in 2024 is currently about 1.3°C compared to the 1850-1900 baseline²⁴.

CO₂ Emissions

64% of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is due to CO₂ emissions^{25 26}, and these emissions almost solely determine Earth’s long term warming commitment²⁷.

In 2023, 88% of CO₂ emissions were due to combustion of fossil fuels²⁸, 77% of which were emitted by only 16 countries²⁹.

Fossil fuel CO₂ emissions reached a record 35 billion tonnes in 2023²⁹.

Atmospheric CO₂

The global average annual atmospheric CO₂ concentration reached a record of 422.8ppm (parts per million) in 2024, increasing at a record rate of 3.8ppm/year^{30 31}. This level is unprecedented in 14 million years³², and the rate is unprecedented in the past 66 million years³³

Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years³⁴.

In the mid-Pliocene, 3 to 5 million years ago, the most recent time that Earth’s atmosphere contained 400ppm of CO₂, global mean surface temperature was 2 to 3˚C warmer than today, the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melted, and even some of the East Antarctic ice was lost, leading to sea levels that were 10 to 20 metres higher than today³⁵.