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Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency
As energy efficiency continues to gain attention as a key resource for economic and social development across all economies, understanding its real value is increasingly important. The multiple benefits approach seeks to expand the perspective of energy efficiency beyond the traditional measure of energy savings by identifying and measuring its impacts in full bloom.
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Coal Mid-Year Update 2025
Coal’s role in the global energy system today remains significant. Over the past decade, the world’s demand for coal has stayed relatively stable, apart from a temporary drop during the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid rebound that followed. Today, global coal consumption, power generation, production and trade are all at record levels.In many countries, coal continues to be the leading source of electricity generation, helping to meet growing energy needs. These trends carry major implications for energy security, affordability and sustainability, especially as coal remains the single largest contributor to energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. While…
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Competitiveness
…shown to lead to improved product quality and consistency, contributing to brand reputation.Improved resource use, such as reduced equipment downtime and unplanned shutdowns, lower maintenance costs, and potentially reduced staff requirements for operation and monitoring. Efficiency has also been shown to increase worker health and safety, reducing the incidence of work-related accidents and health insurance costs.Reduced waste production, such as less use of materials and process water.Combined, these multiple benefits can more than double the benefits of energy cost savings. Need more information? IEA (2025), Gaining an Edge: The Role of Energy Efficiency in Enhancing Competitiveness.
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Pledges to Progress 2025
…ambitions to achieve net zero operational emissions by 2050. As global methane and flaring emissions continue to rise, these ambitions are more important than ever to reduce energy waste and mitigate the harmful consequences of climate change.To support accountability and transparency, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) set out a framework of 25 metrics to assess and track the efforts reported by the oil and gas industry to achieve the goals set out in the OGDC. The framework is detailed in the 2024 report…
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Ensuring a Strong Labour Dimension for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions
…services across many areas of the energy sector. To give a greater voice to the labour perspective in energy and climate policy discussions, the IEA Executive Director, Dr. Fatih Birol, convened the Clean Energy Labour Council in 2022. The Labour Council brings together representatives of the world’s most important national trade unions and trade union confederations, as well as prominent thinkers on the topic, to foster engagement between the IEA, energy policy makers, and the labour movement.The IEA Clean Energy Labour Council presents this paper to highlight the importance of a strong labour dimension in clean energy transitions…
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Ukraine’s Energy Security
…importance. While Ukraine made strong strides in rebuilding and strengthening the resilience of its energy system this past spring and summer, the situation remains fragile, and the risk of huge disruptions and widespread destabilisation remains – particularly as Russia expands the scope and sophistication of its attacks.This analysis builds on the IEA’s September 2024 report, Ukraine’s Energy Security and the Coming Winter. It provides an update on the latest developments through October 2025 and proposes key actions that Ukraine and its partners can take to address urgent energy security vulnerabilities this winter and bolster longer-term energy resilience…
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Financing Electricity Access in Africa
…enabling the expansion of generation capacity, grid networks and decentralised solutions while ensuring that progress remains inclusive and sustainable.In a new flagship report, Financing Electricity Access in Africa, the International Energy Agency (IEA) undertakes its authoritative energy analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of the status quo of electricity access financing, including a first-of-a-kind tracking of public and private investment flows. Building on the analysis of the current landscape, this report offers deeper insights into how investment evolves to reach universal access – quantifying the scale of private and public financing required as well as the affordability…
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Demand and Supply Measures for the Steel and Cement Transition
…in markets. Furthermore, international collaboration will be vital to make the transition faster and less costly, given the international nature of markets for industrial products, the need for large and capital-intensive technology demonstrations for near-zero emission production, and the larger demand signals that can be created by pooling commitments across borders. This report – produced at the request of the Climate Club yet generally applicable to policy discussions for industrial decarbonisation – offers considerations and options for governments to scale-up markets for near-zero and low-emissions steel and cement, while concurrently reducing reliance on high-emissions materials. It…
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Gas Market Report, Q2-2025
…increasingly complex geopolitical context, responsible producers and consumers need to work together to reinforce efforts to ensure reliable gas supplies. This will be among the topics addressed at the international Summit on the Future of Energy Security, convened by the IEA, in partnership with the UK Government, on 24-25 April 2025. Beyond the growing complexity of gas supply security both in the short and long term, the decarbonisation of gas and the broader energy system will require the deployment and scaling up of low-emissions gases. Part of the IEA’s Low-Emissions Gases Work Programme, this quarterly Gas…
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Emission reductions
…avoided energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions equivalent to nearly 20% of the global total in 2023. This is more than the entire energy-related emissions of India and the European Union combined. Accelerating efficiency improvements could deliver a third of all energy-related CO₂ emission reductions between now and 2030 in a pathway aligned with reaching net zero emissions by 2050 – the largest share of any sector or technology. Energy efficiency also improves air quality and people’s health by lowering local air pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrous oxide. Key analysis Global energy-related…
