The world is on course to witness the largest ever drop in investment in global energy, with the coronavirus pandemic set to restrict spending across renewables, gas, fossil fuels and cleantech. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Investment 2020 report warns that 2020 will mark the largest ever drop in spending on global energy.
At the start of the year, the global energy spend was on course to grow by 2%, which would have been the largest annual increase in six years. However, the economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown is expected to create a 20% fall in global energy investment, a fall of almost $400bn compared to 2019. “The historic plunge in global energy investment is deeply troubling for many reasons,” Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director said.
The share of spending on clean energy technologies – covering renewables, efficiency, nuclear and carbon capture, utilisation and storage – is actually set to jump towards the 40% mark, up from 33%, this year. However, this is largely due to the massive decrease in fossil fuel spending and the levels still remain below what is required to spur decarbonisation across the global energy sector. The report also suggests that global oil and gas investments will fall by one-third, with spending on shale gas falling 50%. The power sector spending is also set to fall by 10% in 2020.
Source: Edie
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