Firstly, the results show that, contrary to the global tendency, energy intensity
inequalities have increased in four among the nine regions considered. These
are OECD Pacific, non-OECD Europe, Latin America —where inequality has
almost doubled— and the Middle East. This tendency has however been more
than offset by the downward trajectory of some regions with greater relative
weight (with respect to global GDP).
A common feature to all the regions is the pre-eminence of differences in final
energy consumption intensity as determinants of the differences in energy
intensity. This occurs despite the significant differences in the contribution of
this factor observed among the groups of countries analyzed —from 71.8% in
the case of OECD Europe to 189.7% in North America. Across the board, the
evolution of the differences in final energy consumption per GDP unit is what
determines the evolution of energy intensity inequalities. That is, the observed
increases or declines in inequalities in final energy consumption per GDP unit
predominate the evolution of the remaining factors that determine the energy
intensity inequality tendency.
The factor that captures the weight of the differences in the transformation
index, which represents almost 8% of the explained global differences (see
Table 2), is much more relevant in some of the regions considered. This is the
case for Asia (19.6%), the Middle East (26.2%), Africa (23.5%), and even
OECD Europe (20.4%). As to Africa, where the weight of this component is
greater, it has even increased substantially during the period of analysis. Within
these regions, among countries economically and geographically relatively
homogenous, there are important differences in efficiency of the energy sector
in transforming primary energy into final energy.
The interaction factor also exhibits a very different pattern across the regions,
being even positive in the case of OECD Europe and Latin America. However,
in the former it decreases substantially throughout the period while in the latter
the behaviour is somewhat erratic, increasing between 1970 and 1990 to
decrease afterwards. Anyway, and contrary to the other regions, in OECD
Europe and Latin America the interaction component reinforces global
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