Everything Energy

The car industry is a key part of many economies – and with passenger cars representing the single largest source of global oil demand today, changes in the worldwide auto sector have important implications for the energy sector. The global car industry is undergoing significant shifts, as the geography of car production evolves, new regions drive sales growth, and electric cars expand consumer choices. In this episode, IEA Energy Technology Analysts Elizabeth Connelly and Leonardo Paoli – the lead authors of a recent report on the car industry – unpack the structural trends. They examine the underlying drivers, assess the potential implications for the energy sector and beyond, and discuss how competitiveness can be sustained in this market context.

For many decades, global energy demand was mainly concentrated in wealthy, industrialised economies such as the United States, Europe and Japan. That has changed in the 21st century as China’s rapid economic growth moved the centre of gravity eastward, with the country driving more than half of global oil and gas demand growth and 60% of electricity demand growth since 2010. Now, the landscape is shifting again. Emerging economies – led by India and Southeast Asia, and joined by countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa – are poised to take the baton from China. This brings new opportunities and challenges that will affect energy markets for years to come. In this episode, Ali Saffar, Head of the IEA’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America Division, and IEA energy analyst Siddharth Singh explore how energy demand has evolved over the past half-century and share insights on what lies ahead, based on new analysis in recent IEA reports.

Today, nearly two out of every five people in Africa still live without access to electricity. That means no lighting at home or in schools, no power to grow businesses, and no reliable energy for healthcare or essential services. New IEA analysis outlines a pathway to universal access to electricity by 2035. But what will it take to get there? In this episode, Emma Gordon and Adam Ward – energy investment analysts and lead authors of a recent IEA report on this topic – explain what is needed, including the financial tools that could unlock essential investment.

In every scenario in the IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook 2025, solar power is projected to grow rapidly in the coming decades. But what is driving this growth? And what could slow it down or speed it up? In this episode, Brent Wanner, Head of the IEA’s Power Supply Unit, and Anthony Vautrin, an energy modeller, unpack the new report’s key findings on solar. They discuss the trends that have underpinned solar’s rapid ascent, its potential to meet rising electricity demand around the world, and some of the key factors that are likely to affect its future growth.

The World Energy Outlook 2025 – the latest edition of the IEA’s flagship annual report, which explores a range of possible energy futures and their implications for energy security, access and emissions – is out now.This episode walks through the key findings of the report with its lead authors: IEA Director of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks Laura Cozzi and Chief Energy Economist Tim Gould. They discuss its biggest takeaways – including the growing energy security risks across an unprecedented range of fuels and technologies, how the energy mix could evolve in the coming decades, the arrival of the Age of Electricity, how the geographic centres of energy demand are shifting, and more. More details on the scenarios in the report can be found in this commentary.