World Energy Outlook 2018
The World Energy Outlook (WEO) is the gold standard of long-term energy analysis. The 2018 edition provides updated analysis to show what the latest data, technology trends and policy announcements might mean for the energy sector to 2040.
It also outlines an integrated way to meet multiple sustainable development goals: limiting the global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, addressing air pollution, and ensuring universal access to energy. These points of orientation allow for rigorous thinking about the future against a backdrop of cost reductions in key clean energy technologies, the continued vitality of shale in the United States, and the fast-changing dynamics of energy investment. WEO 2018 includes a special focus on electricity. The future is electrifying, with low-carbon technologies on the rise and electricity demand set to grow at twice the pace of energy demand as a whole. But what will tomorrow’s power sector look like? How will it incentivise investment and ensure reliable supply, and what share of our total energy needs can ultimately be met by electricity? The 2018 WEO also examines the emissions intensities of different sources of oil and gas as well as what can be done to reduce them, and extends the Sustainable Development Scenario to include the linkages between energy and water. The WEO 2018 series features a special report on producer economies that explores how traditional oil and gas-exporting countries are adapting to a new price and policy environment, and what are the implications of longer-term structural changes in demand.
Overview
- Oil
- Gas
- Coal
- Renewables
- Energy efficiency
- Electricity
- Oil and gas innovation
Themes
The World Energy Outlook 2018 examines future patterns of a changing global energy system at a time of increasing uncertainties and finds that major transformations are underway for the global energy sector, from growing electrification to the expansion of renewables, upheavals in oil production and globalisation of natural gas markets. Across all regions and fuels, policy choices made by governments will determine the shape of the energy system of the future.
WEO 2018 details global energy trends and what possible impact they will have on supply and demand, carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy access. Its scenario-based analysis outlines different possible futures for the energy system, contrasting the path taken by current and planned policies with those that can meet long-term climate goals under the Paris Agreement, reduce air pollution, and ensure universal energy access.
Major transformations are underway for the global energy sector, from growing electrification to the expansion of renewables, upheavals in oil production and globalization of natural gas markets. Across all regions and fuels, policy choices made by governments will determine the shape of the energy system of the future.
At a time when geopolitical factors are exerting new and complex influences on energy markets, underscoring the critical importance of energy security, the World Energy Outlook 2018, the International Energy Agency’s flagship publication, details global energy trends and what possible impact they will have on supply and demand, carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy access.
The WEO’s scenario-based analysis outlines different possible futures for the energy system across all fuels and technologies. It offers a contrast with different pathways, based on current and planned policies, and those that can meet long-term climate goals under the Paris Agreement, reduce air pollution, and ensure universal energy access.