The giant oil company said, in a report it issued today, that energy demand worldwide will increase by 35% by 2030 (compared to 2005). It won’t be because of us.
Sure, we North Americans suck up nearly twice as many BTUs per person per day (740,000) than people in any other region of the world. But we’re going to make such terrific gains in energy efficiency that Exxon projects developed countries like ours will actually be using slightly less energy in 2030, despite our economies growing 50 percent larger by then.
It’s those still-developing countries that are going to need a lot more power than than they use now. For example, according to the report, 1.5 billion people in the world have no access to electricity at all. That might need to change. It probably should.
