Uche Cecil Izuora
Record-high temperatures, higher demand from industry and for electrification, and AI and data centers contributed to a 4.3 per cent rise in global power consumption in 2024, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) annual report Global Energy Review 2025.
Surging power demand in both developed and emerging economies accelerated global energy demand growth in 2024 to nearly twice the pace of recent years, the Agency said on Monday.
The rise in power demand last year was nearly double the annual average over the past decade.
As a result, the world’s overall energy demand increased by 2.2 per cent in 2024, which was much faster compared to the average annual energy demand growth of 1.3 per cent between 2013 and 2023.
Despite slowing Chinese growth, emerging and developing economies accounted for more than 80 per cent of the increase in global energy demand in 2024.
Moreover, after several years of declines, advanced economies saw a return to growth last year, with their energy demand increasing by almost 1 per cent in aggregate, the IEA’s report found.
Although a large part of the global demand increase was met by renewables, consumption of natural gas, coal, and nuclear also rose with the higher demand, according to the Agency.
As a result of higher power consumption, natural gas saw the strongest increase in demand among fossil fuels in 2024. Gas demand rose by 115 billion cubic meters (bcm), or by 2.7 per cent, compared with an average increase of around 75 bcm annually over the past decade. Coal demand also rose, by 1 per cent, due to intense heat waves in China and India.
“What is certain is that electricity use is growing rapidly, pulling overall energy demand along with it to such an extent that it is enough to reverse years of declining energy consumption in advanced economies,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“The result is that demand for all major fuels and energy technologies increased in 2024, with renewables covering the largest share of the growth, followed by natural gas.”
Earlier this month, Birol acknowledged that the world needs upstream investments in existing oil and gas fields to support global energy security after the IEA has stated for years that no investments in new oil and gas fields are needed if the world has a chance to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.