The historical macro data show the natural tendency of economies towards
decreasing energy / GDP and energy / population which is the result of several things notably: 1) these ratios trend downward (
unless of course economies are truly» failed»)-- meaning economies naturally move to higher value - added composition e.g., technology, retail, services,... 2) developed economies have higher supply and consumption
efficiencies simply because the technological bases are more advance and efficient be it automotive, industrial, home, personal,... etc..
However, we expect ocean heat uptake
efficiency to
decrease in a warming world, so
unless we're missing something, surface warming may soon return with a vengeance.