Energy consumption in the UK
July 30th 2009

The overall increase in final energy consumption between 1990 and 2008 was 7.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent – an increase of 5.1%. While CO2 has reduced by over 10% since 1990 and is on course to meet the Kyoto target if 12.5% in the next two years, it is largely forgotten that the Government had its own domestic target of a 20% reduction. Industry is doing very well but none of the other sectors have made reduction on 1990 levels.

The changes in the main sectors, between 1990 and 2008 were:

Sector Percentage change


Industry -21


Domestic +12


Transport +21


Services, public administration and agriculture  +3


Growth in energy consumption in the transport sector is slowing.  Transport energy consumption has more than doubled between 1970 and 2008, however two thirds of this increase had occurred by 1990. Transport energy consumption rose 21% between 1990 and 2008.  Within this, the largest increase occurred in the air transport sector, where consumption rose by 83%. Over the same period, the rail sector’s consumption rose by 31 per cent, while passenger road fuel rose by 4%.

Domestic energy consumption increased by 12% between 1990 and 2008. However, despite a 3% increase between 2007 and 2008, domestic energy consumption has fallen from the high seen in 2004, when consumption was 19% higher than in 1990. For context, since 1990, the number of households in the UK increased by 16%, the population by 7% and total household disposable income by 60% in real terms. In 2007, space heating accounted for 56% of all energy consumed in the domestic sector and it is estimated that over the last thirty years, if savings from insulation and heating efficiency improvements had not been made, then energy consumption in homes would be around twice current levels.

In 2008, the largest energy consuming single sub-sector in the industrial sector was chemicals, which accounted for 18% of all industrial energy consumption. In 2008, energy consumption in the chemical sector was 3% lower than the previous year. The iron and steel sector showed the largest percentage decrease on the year in 2008, with a fall of 11%.  Energy consumption per unit output fell by 41% in the chemicals sector between 1990 and 2008, while there was a fall of 16% in the same measure for the iron and steel sector; for all industries there was a fall of 26%.

- In the service sector, energy consumption in the private sector increased by 16 per cent between 1990 and 2008, but fell by 8% in the public sector.  Over the same period, output, measured as the contribution made to the UK economy, nearly doubled in the private sector and increased by 32% in the public sector, in real terms.  In 2007, space heating accounted for 47% of energy consumption in the services sector, and lighting accounted for a further 19%.  The retail sub-sector accounts for just under one quarter of energy use by service sector organisations.

Reduced energy consumption between 2007 and 2008 has helped lower emissions of carbon dioxide by 2%, with the reduction since 1990 being 10.3%.

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