The IEA published earlier this summer a report focusing on the investment side of the energy transition and the last numbers are quite something to look at. Indeed, The Shift in Global Energy Investment report gives data as how money is being invested on energy globally, with estimates for 2025 compared to 2015. And the data is impressive.
On energy transition means :
– Renewables : 780 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +109% compared to 2015 ;
– Grids and storage, 479 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +44% compared to 2015 ;
– Energy efficiency : 429 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +42% compared to 2015 ;
– End-use electrification : 344 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +131% compared to 2015 ;
This makes a grand total of 2.032 Trillion, or 5.5 billion dollars per day ! That’s a 75.6% increase compared to 2015 !
On fossil fuels and nuclear :
– Oil, 535 billion USD will be invested in 2025 , -34% compared to 2015 ;
– Natural gas, 368 billion USD will be invested in 2025, -19% compared to 2015 ;
– Coal, 251 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +13% compared to 2015 ;
– Nuclear, 74 billion USD will be invested in 2025, +64% compared to 2015.
Here the total is of 1.228 Trillion, 20.4% less than in 2015 !
Interesting to read that despite being not much talked about, energy efficiency – when combined with end use electrification – is getting some massive investments, almost as much as renewables : 773 billion versus 780 !
Grids and storage see their investments increasing rapidly as they are the bottleneck right now. Storing cheap or even free electricity to be used later is paramount to our global energy transition. Some places have understood this much better than others. California and Texas in the US are leaders in their country. Australia has been adopting Tesla battery farms for a while now…
As the IEA puts it, the People’s Republic of China is by far the largest investor in energy (both fossil fuels and clean energy), with almost 900 billion USD invested for 2025 alone. The US don’t quite reach 600 billion. The European Union, 386 billion…
We still invest way too much in fossil fuels and nuclear, 1.228 Trllion USD in 2025 compared to 2.032 Trillion in cleantech. The energy transition is thus garnering just under 2/3 of the total energy investments… It would be interesting to see how phasing out both indirect and direct fossil fuels subsidies would impact this.
What do you think ? Will 2026 continue this trend ? I look forward to reading your views and comments !
Sources and image header : IEA (2025), World Energy Investment 2025, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2025, Licence: CC BY 4.0
