Understanding the sustainable consumption of energy resources in global industrial sector: Evidences from 114 countries

The rapid development of industry, which is an energy-intensive sector, may lead to an increased amount of energy consumption. Energy consumption decoupled from economic growth is one of the statuses towards sustainable development. This study conducted a decoupling analysis between industrial energy consumption (IEC) and industrial economic growth (IEG) to identify their relationship. It was found that among the 114 studied countries, there were 32 countries where strong decoupling occurred during the period of 2000 to 2017, while that of others were yet to come. Further, the key factors influencing the IEC of each country are identified based on the factor-related changes over the 17 years. For the 114 countries, the improvement of industrial energy output (IEO) was the most significant driver for IEC, and population also played its role in IEC increment; the reduction of industrial energy intensity (IEI) was the primary inhibitor for IEC, and the decrease of industrial employment rate slightly turned the IEC down over the period. For promoting the decoupling and less energy consumption in the industry, it is suggested to improve the energy efficiency, decelerate the industrial development, or shift the more energy-intensive industrial sectors to less energy-intensive ones, such as services. The study provides a global perspective for IEC reduction with the evidences of 114 countries, and its findings and policy implications provide the status quo and way forward for the countries aiming at reducing their IEC.