SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
2. SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
2.2 ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND ENERGY INTENSITY OF PRODUCTION
Energy consumption broken down by economic activities In 2006 two thirds of the energy used was accounted for by production, and one third by private house-holds.17 The most energy was used by the chemicals sector (12 percent), the steel industry (7.3 percent) and the service sector transport and communication (9.2 percent) (cf. Figure 10). The total share of energy consumption due to the services sectors came to around 23 percent.
Trend in energy consumption
Energy consumption in Germany fell by about 7 per-cent from 1991 to 2007. The trend was affected by fluctuations, however, for example as a result of ener-gy price developments and annual temperature fluc-tuations.
Whereas energy consumption increased from 2005 to 2006, there was a very sizeable decrease of 4.8 per-cent from 2006 to 2007. Part of this drop is due to the relatively mild winter. But even after eliminating
material Wages Energy miscellaneous
Figure 9: Factor costs in the manufacturing industry
Source: Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) et al (2006) 40 % 32 %
3 %
25 %
Figure 10: Primary energy consumption by economic activities (2006) (in petajoules)
Source: Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) (2008a)
15 Cf. Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) (2007d).
16 This emerges from a survey by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) published in October 2007. According to the energy market barometer, more than 80 percent of the 200 experts in the fields of science, energy supply, trading and service companies predict a long-term increase in the prices of gas, crude oil, coal and electricity.
17 The data and analyses in this chapter are largely based on the Environmental Economic Accounts (GEEA) of the Federal Statistical Office. The most recent findings of the special analyses are currently available for 2005 and to some extent for 2006. Information on 2007 is available at the level of the national economy – for example on energy consumption or CO2 emissions – but not broken down by the groups responsible.
Agricultural produce Food and beverages Chemical products Glass, ceramics. non-metallic minerals metal production and processing Other manufacturing industries trade, hotels and restaurants transport and communications Financial and business services, letting public and private services 0
this influence, there is still a 3.7-percent reduction in energy consumption from 2006 to 2007.18
The following findings on the development of energy consumption in the individual product sectors are based on special analyses of the Environmental Eco-nomic Accounts which are only available for the peri-od 1995 to 2006 (2005).19 As a result they do not re-flect the recent positive trends in the reduction of energy consumption.
From 1995 to 2006, energy consumption increased by 4.3 percent. In 2005 much less energy than eleven years before was consumed by agriculture, the non-metallic minerals industries, the distributive trades and the hotel and restaurant sector. By contrast, there was a sharp increase in energy consumption by the services sectors transport and communications, and by business-to-business services.
Source: Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), National Environmental Accounts (2008a)
Figure 11: Trend in primary energy consumption by economic activities (1995 – 2006) (change in percent)
Agricultural produce manufacturing industry Food and beverages Chemical products Glass, ceramics, non-metallic minerals metal production and processing Other production industries trade, hotels and restaurants transport and communications Financial and business services, letting public and private services All production sectors
However, the development of energy consumption in absolute figures is not necessarily very informative.
For example, if dwindling sectors such as mining and agriculture use less energy, this basically has nothing to do with more sustainable production. On the other hand, rising energy consumption may be connected with the growing economic importance of a sector.
What is essential is information about whether pro-duction has become more efficient – i. e. using less energy per unit of goods produced – and whether there has been a structural shift towards less energy-intensive production. The reasons for the trend in energy consumption can be examined more closely by means of “decomposition analysis”: this reveals what influence the factors economic growth, economic structure and energy intensity have on consumption.
The analysis (cf. Figure 12) shows that with conditions otherwise unchanged, economic growth would have
Figure 12: Factors responsible for the trend in energy consumption (change 1995 – 2004 by influencing factors in petajoules)
total 5
-1,500 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500
Source: Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt)
18 Cf. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen (2008).
19 Cf. Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) (2008b), to some extent special analysis for the Federal Environment Agency.
led to an increase in energy consumption of 1501 petajoules – which corresponds to the amount of pri-mary energy from lignite power plants that is con-sumed in Germany in a year.20 By contrast, the changes in economic structure exerted strong down-ward pressure on energy consumption owing to the increase in less energy-intensive production sectors.
Thus on balance there was also a decrease in energy intensity, in other words production became more efficient. Taken together, these opposite trends re-sulted in almost constant energy consumption at the level of the national economy over the period 1995 to 2004.21
Source: Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), National Environmental Accounts
Figure 13: Energy intensity by production sectors (2006)
Agricultural produce manufacturing industry Food and beverages Chemical products Glass, ceramics, non-metallic minerals metal production and processing Other production industries trade, hotels and restaurants transport and communications Financial and business services, letting public and private services All production sectors
Energy intensity: Energy consumption (mJ) per euro gross value added (current prices)
Energy intensity in the production sectors
Energy intensity in the various production sectors of the economy presents a very varied picture. On average, the manufacturing sector consumes nearly 11 megajoules (MJ) per euro generated. The metal sector with 51.8 MJ / euro and the chemicals sector with around 43 MJ / euro are particularly energy- intensive. In absolute terms as well, these two sectors are among the biggest energy consumers in the pro-duction sector in Germany (cf. Figure 10). Services, on the other hand, have a much lower average ener-gy intensity (Figure 13).
Figure 14: Trends in energy intensity (1995 – 2006) (change in percent)
Source: Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) (2008a) Agricultural produce
manufacturing industry of which: Food and beverages Chemical products Glass, ceramics, non-metallic minerals metal production and processing trade, hotels and restaurants transport and communications Financial and business services, letting public and private services All production sectors
Energy intensity: Energy consumption (mJ) per 1000 euro gross value added (price adjusted)
20 Cf. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen (2008).
21 The decomposition analysis is based on a special analysis by the Federal Statistical Office which is only available for the year 2004.
Trends in energy intensity in the production sectors Between 1995 and 2006 the energy intensity of all production sectors together fell by an average of 12.5 percent (cf. Figure 14). This is a drop of nearly two percent per annum. At the same time – as ex-plained in the previous section – there was a slight overall increase in energy consumption, which means that the reduction in intensity is due to the growth in the gross product.
In recent years energy efficiency has increased in the chemicals and metal production sectors in particular.
The situation with regard to glass, ceramics and non-metallic minerals is a special case. The large percent-age increase in energy intensity is mainly due to a change in the method of statistical data acquisition.22 In terms of the national economy this has little im-pact, since this sector’s share of gross product is rela-tively small.
Service providers achieved an above-average increase in their energy productivity, in other words their op-erations were less energy intensive. Factors contribut-ing to the decrease in overall energy intensity includ-ed the construction and conversion of power plants, and energy savings in all sectors of the economy. The increasing economic importance of services also re-sulted in the growth being achieved on a relatively energy-saving basis.