According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Energy Review 2025, India witnessed the second-largest increase in energy demand in absolute terms in 2024, trailing only China. The surge in India’s energy consumption surpassed the combined rise seen across all advanced economies.
The report, released on Monday, highlights that global energy demand grew by 2.2% last year—higher than the average annual growth rate of 1.3% recorded between 2013 and 2023 but lower than the global GDP growth of 3.2%. More than 80% of this energy demand increase came from emerging and developing economies. Meanwhile, China’s energy consumption expanded by less than 3%, significantly below its historical average and half the growth rate of 2023. Advanced economies, after years of declining energy use, saw a modest 1% increase in demand.
Power Sector Drives Global Energy Demand in 2024
The sharp uptick in global energy consumption was largely driven by the power sector. Global electricity usage surged by nearly 1,100 terawatt-hours (TWh), marking a 4.3% increase—almost twice the average annual rise over the last decade. Factors such as record-breaking temperatures, growing industrial demand, increased electrification in transportation, and the expansion of data centers and artificial intelligence contributed to this rise.
The majority of this additional electricity demand was met by renewable sources and nuclear power. A record-breaking 700 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity was installed globally in 2024, continuing a 22-year trend of annual capacity expansion. Nuclear power also saw its fifth-largest capacity addition in the last 30 years. Combined, renewables and nuclear energy accounted for 80% of the total increase in global electricity generation, collectively making up 40% of total power generation for the first time.
Fossil Fuel Trends: Gas Sees Highest Demand Growth
Among fossil fuels, natural gas recorded the highest demand growth, increasing by 115 billion cubic meters (bcm) or 2.7%—well above the decade-long average of 75 bcm annually. Oil consumption, on the other hand, saw a much slower rise of just 0.8%, bringing its share of total energy demand below 30% for the first time in history. This decline was largely influenced by the growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), with EV sales increasing by over 25% and accounting for one in five cars sold worldwide. The reduced oil demand for road transport helped counterbalance rising consumption in the aviation and petrochemical sectors.
Coal demand grew by 1% in 2024, a lower increase than the previous year. Extreme heatwaves in China and India, which drove up cooling needs, were responsible for over 90% of the global rise in coal consumption.
Decoupling Emissions from Economic Growth
Despite increased energy consumption, the report highlights that the continued deployment of clean energy technologies has helped limit the growth of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Global energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 0.8% to 37.8 billion tonnes in 2024, with record-high temperatures playing a significant role in this increase. However, advancements in solar, wind, nuclear, electric vehicles, and heat pumps since 2019 have helped prevent 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually—equivalent to 7% of global emissions.
Advanced economies saw their CO2 emissions decline by 1.1% to 10.9 billion tonnes—the lowest level in 50 years—despite their economies being three times larger than they were then. The bulk of emissions growth in 2024 came from emerging and developing economies outside of China. Although China’s emissions growth slowed, its per-capita emissions are now 16% higher than those of advanced economies and nearly double the global average.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol emphasised that the latest data reaffirms several ongoing energy trends, including slowing oil demand growth, the increasing role of electricity, and the decoupling of emissions from economic expansion. “The strong expansion of solar, wind, nuclear power, and EVs is increasingly weakening the traditional link between economic growth and emissions,” he noted.
