Desarrollo energético en América Latina y la economía mundial

loy Dunkerley I THE ENERGY SECTOR. IN DEVELOPING AND lNDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES fication and even a reversal of these trends at very high levels oí income but by then of course non-productive activities have become more energy intensive. SUMMARY Many factors enter into differences in energy usage between deve– loping and industrialized countries. Differences in income levels at first sight appear to clase the gap but when allowarice is made for the distortions introduced by using market rates of exchange, indus– trialized countries appear to use substantially more energy than LDCs. This difference is intensified when fuel supplies are adjusted to take into account the useful energy 01' energy services provided. Compo– sition of economic output certainly plays a parto Onthe other hand except for one 01' two countries -the US is the outstanding example– prices do not appear to account fol' much of the difference. TRENDS OVER TIME These conclusions are based on a snapshot Iook at these two groups of countries at a given moment of time. But these factors are also of importance in analysing trend in enel'gy consumptíon over time in both groups of countries. Thus trends in consumption of commercial energy wel'e strongly upward in all countries from 1960. Equally high, sometimes highel', rates of economic growth accounted for much of this incl'ease. In so far as in developing countries the increase in income stemmed from a changing composition of economic output, this too contributed. Ful'thermore, declining real pl'ices of imported oil during much of the period reiníorced high consumption. Over times as well as among countl'ies the composition of fuel supplies al50 contributed to rising consumption of enel'gy services. In Europe the substitution of oil for coal was leading to a more efficient enel'gy suppIy as was the diminishing shal'e of non-commercial fuels in deveIoping countries. Indeed if energy consumption is expres– sed in usefuI terms the over al! energy intensity of almost a11 eco– nomies was rising. That is to say, increasing incomes accounted for part of the rising energy consumption but not alI oí it. CONCLUSIONS This description of the energy economies of industrialized and deve– Ioping countries reveals several maJor differences between the energy 25