INDIA TO DRIVE GLOBAL ENERGY DEMAND SURGE

For India and Asia, the stakes are exceptionally high. Demand is rising fastest here, climate risks are intensifying, and energy security vulnerabilities - from critical minerals to extreme weather - are widening. Whether the region can navigate this transition while maintaining affordability, managing geopolitical risks and accelerating clean energy deployment will determine not just the future of Asia, but the future of global energy itself

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THE global energy system is entering one of its most turbulent phases in decades, with governments confronting overlapping security threats, soaring electricity demand, and rising climate risks. The World Energy Outlook 2025 (WEO-2025), released by the International Energy Agency (IEA), warns that energy security is now inseparable from geopolitics, supply chain resilience and climate stability — and that emerging economies, particularly India and Asia, will shape the next era of global demand.

The report — the IEA’s most authoritative assessment of global energy trajectories —finds that traditional oil and gas risks are now compounded by vulnerabilities in critical minerals, electricity grids, cyberattacks, extreme weather, and rapidly expanding data-centre loads. “When we look at the history of the energy world, there is no other time when security tensions have applied to so many fuels and technologies at once,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol notes. “This requires the same spirit and focus that governments showed when they created the IEA after the 1973 oil shock.”

India and Asia assume centre stage

One of the most significant structural shifts documented in WEO-2025 is the movement of global energy demand away from China toward India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. Between now and 2035, 80% of global energy consumption growth will come from regions with strong solar resources, with India and Southeast Asia emerging as the decisive growth poles.