Geo 2026: Global energy use and fuelwood

Energy consumption: the amount of energy used by individuals, households and industry.
Highest use per person: wealthy, industrialised countries such as the USA, Canada, Norway, Qatar and Australia (more industry, transport and technology; often cold climates or energy-intensive lifestyles).
Lowest use per person: countries in Africa and South Asia such as Chad, Niger and Nepal, where many people lack electricity.
Total use is highest in countries with big populations, such as China, India and the USA, even where use per person is lower.
Over time: in the 1800s almost all energy came from traditional biomass (wood). In the 1900s coal, oil and gas grew rapidly, especially after 1950. Renewables have grown fast since about 2000, but fossil fuels still dominate.

Physical: climate (hot countries such as the UAE need energy for air conditioning); resource availability (solar needs a sunny climate; oil-rich places often use a lot).
Human: population size (China); rapid urbanisation (China's cities need more electricity); the cost of exploiting energy (oil needs huge investment in pipelines and rigs); political instability or conflict in energy-rich regions; technology (for example green hydrogen).
Fossil fuels formed from ancient plants and animals (such as swamp plants in the Carboniferous period, and algae and zooplankton in the sea) buried and changed by heat and pressure over millions of years.
Model exam answer (why China's demand has risen): a large population of about 1.4 billion increases demand for household electricity; rapid urbanisation and being the world's largest manufacturing nation increase demand in cities and industry.

Fuelwood is wood, twigs, branches or charcoal collected and burned for cooking, heating and light.
It is renewable only if managed sustainably. It is most used in developing countries, especially rural Africa, South Asia and Latin America: in Ethiopia most energy comes from biomass (your notes say around 90%), many rural families in Nepal rely on nearby forests, while in the UK only a tiny share of energy comes from wood (your notes: under 2%). Your class sheet also says that in the poorest parts of Africa and South Asia over 75% of people use solid fuels such as wood or charcoal, compared with under 5% in Europe, because wealthier countries have electricity and other modern energy.
Impacts: environmental: deforestation, soil erosion, desertification and loss of biodiversity, as more wood is cut than regrows; social: smoke indoors causes breathing and eye illness, and people walk further to collect wood; economic: the cost of buying fuel (fuel wood poverty).
The World Health Organization estimates household air pollution caused about 2.9 million deaths in 2021, with around 2.1 billion people still cooking on open fires or inefficient stoves.

There are two ways to measure energy use, and they give different pictures.
Energy use per person shows how much energy an average person uses. It is highest in wealthy, industrialised countries such as the USA, Canada, Norway, Qatar and Australia, because people have cars, air conditioning or heating, many devices and lots of industry. It is lowest in countries such as Chad, Niger and Nepal, where many people have no electricity and cook on fuelwood.
Total energy use is the whole country added together. Here population size matters most, so China, India and the USA use the most.
Example: China's use per person is lower than the USA's, but because it has about 1.4 billion people (your notes), rapid urbanisation and huge manufacturing, its total use is the largest.
So always check which measure a map or graph is showing before you describe the pattern.

Confusing per person with total: Qatar is high per person but not in total; China is high in total but lower per person.
Saying hot countries use little energy: hot, rich countries such as the UAE use a lot for air conditioning.
Mixing physical and human factors: climate and resources are physical; population, urbanisation, cost, politics and technology are human.
Calling fuelwood always renewable: it is renewable only if trees are replanted as fast as they are cut.
Vague impacts: say who is affected and how, for example 'smoke indoors causes breathing and eye illness for women and children cooking'.

World map, energy use per person (2024): your class map is a choropleth map: each country is shaded by its value, and the key runs from 0 to 100,000 kWh per person (kilowatt-hours, a unit of energy). Darker shading means more energy per person. The darkest areas are North America, parts of the Middle East such as Qatar, Norway and Australia; the palest are much of Africa and South Asia.
Your class exam question (Figure 1b): a choropleth map of energy consumption per person in the European Union in 2022. 'Suggest one possible reason for the differences in energy consumption.' (3 marks)
How the class mark scheme awards it: 1 mark (AO1) for a basic point about the difference, or specific data for one country; 2 more marks (AO3) for extending it using the map.
Model ideas from the mark scheme: higher demand in northern Europe may be due to the colder temperatures, so more energy is needed to heat homes and businesses. Or demand may be higher in some eastern European countries because more industrial processes take place there, which are energy intensive.

Your class compared two graphs from 1800 to today: world population by region and global primary energy consumption.
Trend in both: a slow rise until about 1900, then a much steeper rise, especially after 1950.
Why they match: more people need more energy for homes, food production, transport and industry.
Energy per person rose too: industrialisation and rising wealth mean each person uses more electricity, cars and manufactured goods, so energy use grew even faster than population.
Which regions? On the class population graph, Asia is by far the largest and fastest-growing band, so Asia (for example China and India) now uses the most energy in total. World population passed 8 billion in November 2022 (UN, 2022).
Predicting 2050: if countries meet their renewable energy goals, the solar and wind bands would take a much larger share and coal and oil a smaller one, even if total energy use keeps rising with population. Use HLGTA to describe each graph before you explain the link.

Health figure: your class fuelwood sheet says indoor smoke is estimated to cause 1.5 million deaths each year in developing countries. That is an older estimate; the WHO figure earlier in this lesson (about 2.9 million deaths in 2021 from household air pollution) is more recent and covers all polluting household fuels, not just wood. If an exam gives you a figure, use the one in the resource.
Flooding and drought: your class mind map also lists these as environmental impacts. Removing trees means less rain is intercepted and soaked into the soil, so water runs off quickly and rivers flood; bare soil also dries out and erodes, making drought harder to cope with.
How fossil fuels form (class word bank): in the Carboniferous period, plants grew in swamps; marine algae and zooplankton lived in the sea. When these organisms died, the organic material was buried before it could fully decompose. Over a very long time, rising temperature and pressure turned plants into coal, and marine organisms into oil and gas.