Policy incentives will help accelerate decarbonisation

Despite record growth in renewables, the Middle East's energy trajectory underscores the global paradox of rising emissions alongside clean power expansion, Gael Rouilloux tells OGN

- BY ABDULAZIZ KHATTAK

IN a year when average air temperatures consistently breached the 1.5 deg C warming threshold, global CO2-equivalent emissions from energy rose by 1 per cent, marking yet another record, the fourth in as many years.

Wind and solar energy alone expanded by an impressive 16 per cent in 2024, nine times faster than total energy demand.

Yet this growth did not fully counterbalance rising demand elsewhere, with total fossil fuel use growing by just over 1 per cent, highlighting a transition defined as much by disorder as by progress.

This first complete look at global energy data for 2024 was offered in the 74th edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, which was released by The Energy Institute (El), in collaboration with Kearney and KPMG in late June.

In an exclusive interview with OGN energy magazine, Gael Rouilloux, Middle East and Africa Lead, Energy and Process Industry at Kearney, explains the complexities of the global energy transition.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Despite renewables growing nine times faster than global energy demand, fossil fuel use still rose in 2024. What does this dual growth trajectory say about the actual pace and direction of the energy transition?

This reflects one of the core complexities of the energy transition. In 2024, geopolitical tensions and extreme weather events reshaped the energy landscape, putting energy security, resource access, and technological sovereignty ahead of climate targets.

Electrification grew by 4 per cent, outpacing overall energy demand growth of 2 per cent, a trend sustained for the past decade.

Wind and solar expanded by 16 per cent, led by Asia Pacific, with China responsible for 91 per cent of regional growth and 57 per cent of global growth.

Natural gas demand rose 2.5 per cent globally, while oil use remained flat in OECD markets, however, climbing 1 per cent in non-OECD countries.