Global bioenergy almost doubled from 1990: FAOSTAT

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a new and comprehensive set of bioenergy statistics through its FAOSTAT platform, providing global, regional and country-level data on bioenergy production and final consumption from 1990 to 2023. The dataset covers 193 countries and 22 territories, offering one of the most detailed long-term pictures of bioenergy trends worldwide.

Latest figures by FAOSTAT say that global bioenergy production rose significantly over the past three decades, increasing from about 28 exajoules (EJ) in 1990 to nearly 50 EJ in 2023. Over the same period, global final consumption of bioenergy expanded from 24 EJ to around 40 EJ, underlining the growing role of bioenergy in the global energy mix.

In 2023, solid biofuels continued to dominate global bioenergy use, accounting for 35 EJ, or 89 percent, of total final consumption. Liquid biofuels followed with 4.4 EJ, representing about 11 percent, while gaseous biofuels such as biogas contributed a relatively small share of 0.1 EJ, or 0.3 percent. However, growth trends varied sharply by fuel type.

FAOSTAT said that between 1990 and 2023, final consumption of liquid and gaseous biofuels expanded rapidly, growing at average annual rates of around 9 percent and 8 percent respectively, while solid biofuels increased by just about 1 percent per year.

Fuelwood remained the single largest bioenergy source in 2023 at 22 EJ, followed by other vegetal materials and residues at 7 EJ, and biogasoline at 2.3 EJ. Together, these three fuels accounted for nearly 80 percent of global bioenergy final consumption.

Regionally, FAOSTAT mentioned that Asia was the largest consumer of solid biofuels at 17.5 EJ, roughly half of the global total. The Americas led liquid biofuel consumption with 2.6 EJ, while Europe accounted for nearly 60 percent of global gaseous biofuel use. At the country level, India emerged as the world’s largest bioenergy consumer in 2023 at 7.6 EJ, followed by China, the United States, Brazil and Ethiopia.

Launched in 2024, the FAOSTAT Bioenergy domain is the result of collaboration between FAO’s Statistics Division, the Office of Climate and Biodiversity, and the UN Statistical Division, using internationally agreed energy accounting standards.