Global Energy Review 2025

Coal Produced Most Electricity; Renewables Had Highest Shares of Increasing Electricity Demand in 2024

In March, the International Energy Agency published its Global Energy Review 2025. The report covers energy trends in 2024, including those from non-renewable and renewable energy sources and resulting carbon dioxide emissions. Below are some key findings from the report.

Total energy-related emissions reached a record high of 37.5 Gt CO2 (gigatons of carbon dioxide) in 2024, a 0.8% increase from the previous year. Of this total, the most was from coal at about 15.6 Gt CO2 (41%), followed by oil at about 11.3 Gt CO2 (30%), and natural gas at about 7.6 Gt CO2 (20%).
Global electricity demand grew by 13.9 EJ (quintillion joules), to a total of 648 EJ in 2024. Of this increase, renewables had the highest share of 38%, followed by natural gas (28%), coal (15%), oil (11%), and nuclear (8%). Over 80% of the total increase was from emerging and developing economies.

Global carbon dioxide emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes in GtCO2 from 1900 to 2024. ©IEA (CC BY 4.0)
Total electricity generation was about 31,153 TWh (terawatt-hour) in 2024. Globally, coal had the highest share of about 10,738 TWh (34%), followed by renewables at about 9,992 TWh (32%), natural gas at about 6,793 TWh (22%), and nuclear at 2,844 TWh (9%).
Percentage of electricity generation by source for selected regions in 2024. ©IEA (CC BY 4.0)Color key: nuclear (yellow), renewables (dark green), oil (light green), natural gas (dark blue), coal (light blue)
Global electricity generation grew by over 1,200 TWh. Of this increase, 480 TWh was from solar photovoltaics, 190TWh was from hydropower, and 180 TWh was from wind power.
In 2024, six nuclear projects (two from China and one each from France, India, the United Arab Emirates, and US) were completed with over 7 GW (gigawatts) of additional nuclear power capacity. As of February 2025, there were 62 nuclear reactors under construction in 15 countries, including China, Egypt, India, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, UK, and Slovakia.