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Household Energy Affordability Executive summary
…At the peak of the crisis in 2022, bills rose 16% year-on-year. This fuelled inflationary pressures and pushed energy affordability to the top of the political agenda. For most households around the world, energy is the third-largest expense after food and housing.Household bills are sensitive to movements in underlying fuel prices; oil price pressures eased in 2025, but natural gas markets remained relatively tight in many parts of the world. Benchmark oil prices were around USD 15/barrel lower at the end of the year than at the start, reflecting a large global supply surplus and bringing…
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World Energy Investment 2025 Japan and Korea
…the growth in electricity demand.In the next decade, promoting renewable power will be crucial for securing energy supplies and increasing domestic energy supply to alleviate pressure on the trade balance. In recent years sustainable bonds for nuclear-related investment have emerged, and government involvement will be essential for large-scale investments.Furthermore, Japan and Korea will continue prioritising long-term liquified natural gas (LNG) contracts to mitigate short-term price volatility, while accelerating emissions reductions through proper planning and investing in clean energy. Given the similarities in their energy mix, co-operation between the two countries will be beneficial…
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Indicators Handbook for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions Key findings from workshops on challenges and opportunities for tracking progress on just and inclusive energy transitions
…Data improvements and digital opportunities Improving the availability of disaggregated data offers new ways to monitor key just transition dimensions.Clean energy programmes and policies can affect groups differently. Indicators tracking their just and inclusive dimensions, therefore, require disaggregated data that allow for intersectional analysis of key socio-economic factors such as gender, age, disability, household tenure, migration status or rural-urban divides. While the availability of disaggregated data remains a fundamental challenge for tracking just transitions across the world, improving it also represents a major opportunity for policymakers to target their interventions and mainstream inclusion in their energy programmes…
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Financing Clean Energy in Africa Clean energy investment landscape: setting the scene
Summary The IEA’s Africa Energy Outlook 2022 laid out a new scenario – the Sustainable Africa Scenario (SAS) – which sees the continent achieve by 2030, in full and on time, all of its energy and climate-related goals, including universal energy access and its NDCs.Realising the SAS requires mobilising over USD 200 billion annually by 2030, but energy investment has been declining in Africa and in 2022 was under USD 90 billion. Clean energy spending was a fraction of this at around USD 25 billion – only 2% of the global total despite the recent rise in global clean energy investment. This is far from what…
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Global EV Outlook 2026 Outlook for electric mobility
Vehicle outlook by mode By 2035, the fleet of EVs across all vehicle types except two/three-wheelers (2/3Ws) exceeds 450 million globally in the Current Policies Scenario (CPS) – more than five times as many EVs as there were at the end of 2025. CO2 and fuel economy standards, especially for new light-duty vehicles (LDVs), are the main driver of rising EV sales outside of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, “China”). In China and a few other emerging markets, the competitive economics of EVs already support continued adoption in the CPS. Elsewhere, however, EV sales stall, particularly…
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World Energy Investment 2025 Africa
…energy projects in Africa has fallen by approximately one-third in the last ten years, reaching USD 20 billion in 2024, largely due to a reduction of more than 85% in spending by Chinese DFIs. While representing a small share of overall spending, the public sector and DFIs are particularly important for projects in nascent markets, using new technologies or in commercially unviable areas where it can be challenging for private sector investment relying on concessional funds to ensure profitability. Against this backdrop, private equity and venture capital play a key role in financing early-stage businesses, especially in energy…
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Gaining an Edge Unlocking the potential of energy efficiency
…and other factors, the energy required to produce the same sales volume varies significantly within the same subsector and to manufacture equivalent products. For example, energy consumption can vary by a factor of five times to manufacture plastic bags, and by a factor of seven times to produce bricks, with similar figures observed for other types of products, from milk to ceramic tiles to plastic bottles. While some of these variations can be due to differences in products and other factors, such wide disparities highlight the potential for many firms to reduce energy expenditures through improved energy efficiency. In IEA…
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Integrating Distributed Energy Resources in China Executive summary
Rapid DER expansion creates new considerations for China’s distribution networks China is experiencing an unprecedented boom in distributed energy resources (DERs), including rooftop solar photovoltaics, battery storage, electric vehicles (EVs) and flexible electric loads. Typically located behind-the-meter, these small assets can deliver significant benefits to China’s power system if efficiently integrated, including enhanced flexibility, strengthened electricity security and lower system costs. Driven by declining technology costs and supportive national programmes, DER deployment has accelerated across rural communities and commercial and industrial buildings. By 2024, distributed photovoltaics (DPV) accounted for 40% of the country’s total solar…
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Financing the ASEAN Power Grid Executive summary
…generation can also prevent deepened dependencies on fossil fuel imports that are prone to supply shocks, as witnessed during the 2022-2023 global energy crisis which caused regional subsidies for fossil fuel consumption to soar. Optimising both variable renewable and flexible resources across countries requires a strong degree of trust, regulatory and technical co-ordination, robust business models, harmonised arrangements for cross-border trade, and substantial investment; but if achieved, it could benefit consumers through lower electricity costs and governments through enhanced energy security. Regional power trade is nascent today despite the first projects dating back over five decades Since…
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Brazil 2025 Executive summary
…the benefits of energy transitions are widespread for all citizens and can be leveraged to accelerate economic opportunities and reduce inequalities. As part of this effort, the jobs potential from the energy transition could be considerable, but it is not fully understood in terms of the number of jobs, sectors and skills requirements. A comprehensive jobs planning and workforce mapping exercise would help maximise opportunities, building off successful local programmes. Brazil should also look to identify opportunities to expand clean cooking access to all families, including exploring the inclusion of electricity into clean cooking options. A successful energy transition in…
