World Electricity Generation

Updated February 2023

Annual shares

Chart 1. World electricity generation by share in 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2.

Trends

Chart 2. World electricity generation by annual share of fuel category, 1985 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2.
Chart 3. World electricity generation by annual share of fuel, 1985 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2.

Chart 4 shows the share of electricity from low carbon fuels (nuclear, hydro, wind & solar) peaked at 36% in 1995, coinciding with COP13.

Over the following 17 years from 1996 to 2012, electricity generation by fossil fuels gained share, mainly due to gas, and the declining share of nuclear and hydro. The share of low-carbon fuels decreased to a minimum of 29.6% in 2012. This trend then reversed due to the share of wind and solar becoming significant, but the share of electricity generation by low carbon fuels in every subsequent year remained lower than the 1995 peak.

The outcome after 26 years since COP1 is that electricity generation by fossil fuels and low carbon fuels have both lost a 1% share to the categories ‘Geothermal, Biomass and Other Renewables’ and ‘Other’.

Chart 4. World electricity generation 1995 – 2021 by share and change of share with respect to 1995, the year of the United Nations’ first Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP1)3. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2.

Trends of absolute values are shown below.

Chart 5. Annual world electricity generation, by fuel category, 1995 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown.
Chart 6. Annual world electricity generation, by fuel category, 1995 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2.

The decline of fossil fuels in 2009, shown in chart 7, was unintentional, due to the Global Financial Crisis4, and in 2019 and 2020 due to COVID. Chart 8 shows this is dictated by coal fired power generation, rather than gas. The rebound in 2021 reveals the world’s priorities.

Chart 7. Annual change of world electricity generation, by fuel category, 1995 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown. Annual changes are shown at the top of each column, values rounded.
Chart 8. Annual change of world electricity generation by fuel, 1995 – 2021. Data: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 20221 2. For clarity, categories ‘Geo, Biomass and Other renewables’ and ‘Other’ are not shown. Annual changes are shown at the top of each column, values rounded.
Footnotes
  1. https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)
  2. BP does not fully account for biofuels, and these may not be carbon-neutral, as explained at https://www.worldenergydata.org/biofuels/(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)(↩)
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Climate_Change_conference#1995:_COP_1,_Berlin,_Germany(↩)(↩)
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008(↩)