ABSTRACT
In the past half-century, global demand for energy multiplied more than five times over twice as fast as population as industrial nations burned coal, oil, natural gas to fuel their economies. World oil production per person reached a high in 1979 and has since declined 23 percent. Based on projections from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a full 86 percent of the global increase results from rising consumption per person related to changes in affluence and standards of living while population growth accounts for just 14 percent. Annual energy consumption in developing world is projected to grow by 336 percent nearly four times faster than population over the next 50 years, from 3,499 million tons of oil equivalent to 15,255 million tons. Lower rates of population growth in Asia, compared with Latin America and Africa, mean that energy use per person increase most in Asia.
