How We Use Energy in 2024

Written by Ryan McGuine // Every summer, BP releases its annual benchmark publication, the Statistical Review of World Energy, which details trends in energy production and consumption over the course of the previous year. Continue reading

How We Use Energy in 2022

The Carbon Must Flow

Written by Ryan McGuine // Most countries around the world, and increasingly many companies, have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by or around 2050. Crucially, net-zero does not necessarily mean zero emissions. Rather, it means that a quantity of carbon emissions equivalent to those emitted have been either removed from the atmosphere, or prevented from having reached the atmosphere in the first place. Additionally, nearly every modeled pathway to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5°C, include assumptions for large amounts of carbon capture and sequestration. As such, even though carbon management is a nascent field today, it is poised to grow dramatically in the next few decades. Continue reading

How We Use Energy in 2021

Growing Energy on Trees

Written by Ryan McGuine // Biomass is the oldest source of energy harnessed by humans. The history of energy transitions has been one of moving away from biomass and toward fuels with greater power densities, like coal, natural gas, and petroleum, but today it is making a comeback in high-income countries as a way to help combat climate change. While replacing all fossil fuel consumption with biomass would be a disaster for the climate, it will certainly play a role in the decarbonization of the economy. Continue reading

Lean Machine: The Greening of Supply Chains

Written by Riley Collins // Big business has long been synonymous with oil spills, environmental degradation, and the overall promotion of a system that emphasizes quarterly profit above all else. However, many corporations are now turning a new leaf and using their size to exert influence across the economy by improving the environmental sustainability of their supply chains. The scale and quickness with which large businesses can act makes this an area that is extremely promising in reducing environmental degradation globally. Continue reading

Digging for Sunlight

Written by Ryan McGuine // There is a profound shift taking place in the way the world produces and consumes energy. However, that transition is better conceptualized as a shift toward the extraction of different resources, rather than the extraction of fewer. Continue reading

How We Use Energy in 2020

Written by Ryan McGuine // Every June, BP releases its annual benchmark publication, the Statistical Review of World Energy, which details trends in energy production and consumption over the course of the previous year. Continue reading

Coronavirus & Climate: Silver Linings & Red Herrings

Written by Ryan McGuine // The COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically changed daily life around the world. The global economy has ground to a halt as governments and individuals take unprecedented social distancing measures to "flatten the curve." Everything humans do affects the natural environment in some way, and coronavirus-related changes to daily life present an interesting contrast to before the virus. Continue reading

Environmental Kuznets Curve

Written by Ryan McGuine //

In the 1950s, Simon Kuznets postulated that as economies become wealthier, the level of inequality there would increase, then decrease. When plotted against income per capita, this creates the inverted-U shaped curve seen below. Around 1991, Gene Grossman and Alan Krueger noted a similar inverted-U shaped relationship between income levels and environmental degradation, dubbed the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Continue reading