Why electricity’s energy share understates its useful work

An electric car can travel using less energy than a combustion car needs for the same journey. That efficiency creates an accounting trap: electricity’s share of the energy people buy can be smaller than its share of the useful work they receive.

A report published on November 2 by Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute through Climate Action Tracker examines that gap. Its practical proposal is to track electrification through several measures, rather than treating one economy-wide percentage as a complete account of progress.

The report considers the global goal of electricity supplying 35% of total final energy consumption by 2035. That is an energy-input measure, not a count of electric appliances, vehicles or services. The authors say the global milestone should not become an identical target for every country or sector.

The distinction is physical. In its September 2026 Electrification report, the International Energy Agency describes electric vehicles as two to four times more efficient than combustion vehicles. A heat pump uses electricity to collect heat from its surroundings; the heat delivered is typically three to five times its electricity input. It transfers energy as well as consuming it.

As those technologies replace combustion equipment, less purchased energy can provide the same mobility or warmth. The denominator—the total energy consumed—changes too. Comparing energy shares without considering efficiency can therefore obscure how much activity has switched to electricity.

Nor does a rising electricity share establish that fossil-fuel use is falling. The Climate Action Tracker report notes that new demand, including data centres, can raise electrification without replacing an existing fossil-fuel service. It also says the metric alone cannot show how clean the electricity supply is.

Its proposed framework combines economy-wide and sectoral benchmarks with equipment-deployment measures and indicators of supporting infrastructure. Examples include the electric share of the vehicle fleet, heat pumps among installed heating equipment, and charging coverage. These connect the headline number to changes on the ground.

Efficiency alone does not remove barriers to adoption. The European Commission’s heat-pump overview identifies high installation costs, electricity prices, installer shortages and unstable financing among obstacles across European markets. Those constraints help explain why an efficient technology’s potential and its deployment can diverge.

Reading an electrification target therefore requires several questions: which services are switching, what fuel use is being displaced, how the power is generated, and whether the equipment and networks needed for the next stage are arriving.