The equation for energy transferred to an is $ Q = mc\Delta T$
$Q$ = Energy Transferred
$m$ = mass of the object
$\Delta T$ = change in temperature
This equation gives a linear energy to temperature ratio. Isn't it that when you get the temperature closer to $0$ K the graph becomes exponential?
In this case, when the temperature is declining it doesn't show how much energy is required to lower the temperature it shows how much energy the object loses. With this, it can also be shown how much thermal energy was in the object in the first place. The ∆T has to be such that the temperature reaches just over 0 K.