How wealthy we are is thus reflected in the amount of energy we consume. The average Congolese person consumes the energy equivalent of 1.1 kilograms of oil per day (kg/day). The average Indonesian consumes the energy equivalent of 2.5 kg/day. The average U.S. citizen consumes 19 kg/day.60 But these numbers obscure huge differences in the quality of energy. Almost all of the average Congolese person’s energy consumption is in the form of burning wood and other biomass, where just 24 percent of the average Indonesian’s is, and nearly none of the average American’s is.
