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Policy report
Oct 2025
Financing Electricity Access in Africa Beyond new connections
Providing an affordable, equitable and quality service Affordability constraints can prevent households from gaining access to electricity or from taking advantage of electricity services once a connection is made. An estimated 220 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (around 40% of those without access) would find the basic bundle unaffordable, rising to 400 million for the essential bundle (65% of those without access). Filling this affordability gap would cost an additional USD 2-10 billion per year, via supply-side subsidies to reduce developer costs, demand-side subsidies to reduce consumer costs, or reductions in financing costs.The cost of capital for electricity access projects…
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Technology report
Nov 2025
What Next for the Global Car Industry The global car industry in context
Highlights Global car markets are undergoing potentially transformative changes. Car sales reached a high point in 2017 and have bounced back from a pandemic-related drop due to sales of electric and hybrid cars; sales of conventional cars have continued to fall. Growth has shifted to emerging economies including China since the turn of the century, with around half of all sales now in these regions. Global car production has grown unevenly since the pandemic. China’s car output reached a record 27 million in 2024, 30% higher than in 2019, while India’s output grew 30% to almost 5…
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Report
Oct 2025
Breakthrough Agenda Report 2025 Steel
State of the transition Emissions Total CO2 emissions remain largely unchanged from recent years, while direct CO2 emissions intensity has seen an uptick since 2021. Both must fall in the coming years to get on track with the IEA’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE Scenario). Cost Blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) routes make up about 70% of global steel production today.Hydrogen direct reduced iron electric arc furnace (H2 DRI-EAF) routes are emerging as a preferred low-emissions option in certain regions. Early commercial plants using 100% hydrogen blends are estimated to cost 50…
- Executive summary
- Power
- Hydrogen
- Road transport
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+ 4 pages
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Policy report
Oct 2025
Scaling Up Transition Finance Sectoral insights
Where can transition finance be applied? This chapter provides an analysis of investments that can be supported by transition finance in three important areas – heavy industry, critical minerals and natural gas – building on the preceding assessment of investments and providing illustrative cases and non-exhaustive key performance indicator (KPI) examples to underpin transition strategies.As with the investment amounts highlighted in Chapter 1 that can be supported by transition finance, inclusion here does not automatically render an activity eligible for transition finance, since such eligibility depends on meeting the relevant process requirements. Equally, the absence of an activity from this…
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Policy report
Oct 2025
Financing Electricity Access in Africa Pathway to universal access
Mobilising the necessary investment Under the new Accelerating Clean Cooking and Electricity Services Scenario (ACCESS), investment of nearly USD 150 billion is needed to achieve universal electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa by 2035. This represents a six-fold increase in annual spending from today’s levels, facilitated by improvements to the regulatory environment, strengthened risk management by developers and risk-mitigation tools to support more private investment, and a more targeted use of concessional funds.Around 45% of households currently without access are connected via the grid under the ACCESS scenario, with financial support for households to reduce connection fees and…
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Policy report
Jun 2026
Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit Small and Medium Enterprises
Small and Medium Enterprises
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Fuel report
Sep 2025
Global Hydrogen Review 2025 Investment and innovation
Highlights Capital spending on low-emissions hydrogen projects reached USD 4.3 billion in 2024, an 80% increase from 2023. Based on recent final investment decisions (FIDs), spending could rise by more than 80% in 2025 to nearly USD 8 billion.In 2024, capital spending was almost evenly split between electrolysis and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)-equipped hydrogen production. In 2025, electrolysis is expected to account for 80% of spending but only 56% of production from projects under construction, given its higher capital intensity.Investment in electrolysis-based projects is highest in China and Europe, while the United States allocates a larger share…
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Flagship report
Apr 2025
Energy and AI Energy demand from AI
What is a data centre? Artificial intelligence (AI) model training and deployment occur mainly in data centres. Understanding the role of data centres as actors in the energy system first requires an understanding of their component parts. Data centres are facilities used to house servers, storage systems, networking equipment and associated components that are installed in racks and organised into rows. This IT equipment, and a range of auxiliary equipment required to keep it in working order, comprise the following:Servers are computers that process and store data. They can be equipped with central processing units (CPUs) and specialised accelerators…
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Report
Nov 2025
Global Energy and Climate Model Techno-economic inputs
The Global Energy and Climate Model (GEC Model) uses macro drivers, techno-economic inputs and policies as input data to design and calculate the scenarios. The values for the different data categories and scenarios used in the GEC Model 2025 can be downloaded here.In particular more details regarding power generation technology costs for the Current Policies Scenario, the Stated Policies Scenario and the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario can be downloaded in excel format, including detailed projections at the 2050 horizon regarding overnight capital costs, annual O&M costs, efficiencies and other contributors to electricity costs at regional…
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Fuel report
Jun 2026
Global Hydrogen Review 2026 Cost acceptability
Analysis of the costs of hydrogen in different end-uses enables identification of the maximum acceptable costs for hydrogen users, i.e. the maximum amount that can be spent on the hydrogen feedstock within a low-emissions pathway while maintaining the same total levelised cost of production as the incumbent pathway to produce the same commodity.This can enable policy makers and investors to identify sectors with both high maximum acceptable hydrogen costs and high potential volumes that can serve as lead markets for low-emissions hydrogen. Cost acceptability can be influenced by policies and depends on technologies, fuels and…