Economic Buzz: Global Energy Demand to Rise 23% by 2050

Global primary energy demand is set to climb from 308 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe/d) in 2024 to 378 mboe/d in 2050, an increase of 23% over the outlook period where almost entire growth will come from developing regions led by India, Other Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

In case of developed nations, the energy demand is expected to generally stay flat and/or decline while the demand for all primary fuels is set to increase to 2050, with the exception of coal driven by supportive polices and declining electricity generation costs, demand for other renewables set to increase by 40.5 mboe/d over the outlook period.

Notably, oil and gas demand is projected to increase strongly where oil demand is anticipated to increase by 18.2 mboe/d while natural gas may spike by almost 20 mboe/d to 2050. Post stagnation, nuclear energy is likely to see significant growth, rising by 10 mboe/d in the outlook period whereas coal demand is forecasted to drop by 30.4 mboe/d.

Total electricity generation is presumed to increase from around 31,500 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to roughly 57,500 TWh in 2050. Around 75% of this growth is predicted to come from developing nations out of which 60% of the growth comes from Asian countries alone.

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