Page 5 - AsiaElec Week 22 2021

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

IEA says energy investment

rebound is not green enough

P THE IEA has forecast that global investment emissions by 2050. Based on our new Net Zero
in energy will rebound by nearly 10% in 2021 Roadmap, clean energy investment will need to
to $1.9 trillion, reversing most of last year’s triple by 2030.”
drop caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) While renewables dominate new power
pandemic. investment, and approvals for coal-fired plants
However, it warned that spending on green are 80% below where they were five years ago,
energy needs to accelerate much more rapidly to coal is still not out of the picture.
meet climate goals. There was even a slight increase in go-aheads
With energy investment returning to pre-cri- for coal-fired plants in 2020, driven by China and
sis levels, its composition is continuing to shift some other Asian economies.
towards electricity: 2021 is on course to be the Upstream oil and gas investment is antici-
sixth year in a row that investment in the power pated to rise by about 10% in 2021 as companies
sector exceeds that in traditional oil and gas sup- recover financially from the shock of 2020, but
ply, according to the World Energy Investment their spending remains well below pre-crisis
2021 report. levels.
Global power sector investment is set to The new report highlights the diverging strat-
increase by around 5% in 2021 to more than egies among different oil and gas companies. The
$820bn, its highest ever level, after staying flat majors are holding oil and gas spending flat on
in 2020. aggregate in 2021, despite recovering prices.
Renewables are dominating investment in Meanwhile, some national oil companies
new power generation capacity and are pre- (NOCs) are stepping up investment, raising the
dicted to account for 70% of the total this year. possibility of increased market share if demand
Crucially, every dollar spent on solar PV now continues to grow.
resulting in four times more electricity than ten Qatar’s decision to move ahead with the
years ago, thanks to greatly improved technology world’s largest LNG expansion, and to include
and falling costs. carbon capture technologies in this investment,
“The rebound in energy investment is a wel- is a strong signal of its intent to maintain a lead-
come sign, and I’m encouraged to see more of it ership position in LNG.
flowing towards renewables,” said Fatih Birol, the
IEA’s Executive Director. Diversification
“But much greater resources have to be There are signs in the latest data that spending
mobilised and directed to clean energy technol- by some global oil and gas companies is starting
ogies to put the world on track to reach net-zero to diversify.

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