5 Countries with the Highest Resource Consumption in the World

4. Russia      

Oil Consumption of barrels per day in 2023 (in thousands): 3,635               

Electricity Consumption (billion kWh): 1,026        

Coal Consumption (short tons in thousands): 291,357      

Natural Gas Consumption (billion cubic feet): 16,677       

Biofuel Consumption of barrels per day (in thousands): N/A              

Annual Water Consumption (billion-meter cube): 65        

Aggregate Resource Consumption: 312,809

Amidst the serious topic of excessive resource consumption under discussion here, we have Russia – a country that’s in a war state and is therefore consuming up all of its natural resources to sustain itself in the short run, without having any regard for the global resource scarcity issue.

Despite being sanctioned by the West, the country has been exporting oil excessively to the non-western side of the world. Furthermore, it has increased its aluminum and nickel exports to the EU and the U.S. by 70% from March 2022 to June 2022.

To make things worse, Rosatom, the country’s nuclear monopoly saw its exports increase by 15% in 2022, while having a $200 billion foreign order book, according to the Wilson Center.