Under current and planned policies, global energy demand is expected to grow by over 25 percent to 2040, requiring an annual investment of more than $2 trillion in new energy supply, according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook published on Nov. 13. The agency said that over 70 percent of global energy investments will be government-driven, underscoring the importance of policy choices to shape the future energy system. The report predicts a renewed period of uncertainty and volatility for oil markets including a supply gap in the 2020s. Conventional oil projects would have to double to meet the continued growth in oil consumption. Growing natural gas demand “erases talk of glut,” the agency notes, with China’s consumption escalating. Although renewables are expected to make up about two-thirds of capacity additions in 2040, the report emphasizes that flexibility should be the cornerstone of future of power markets to address intermittency in supplies. With regard to climate goals, the report calls for a “systematic preference for investment in sustainable energy,” noting that current and under-construction energy infrastructure account for around 95 percent of emissions permitted under international targets. Most emissions related to energy infrastructure are essentially locked-in, with coal-fired plants representing over a third of cumulative locked-in emissions to 2040.