The IEA this week released its World Energy Investment 2020 report, examining the dramatic collapse in energy-sector investment in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The speed and scale of the fall in energy investment activity in the first half of 2020 is without precedent,” according to the energy watchdog. Initial expectations for a 2% increase in global energy sector investment this year have swiftly turned into a 20% projected drop. Unprecedented indeed.
The decline, nearly $400bn against 2019 levels in nominal terms, is the largest ever recorded. By far the largest drop is in oil and gas investment, which is projected to decline by 32% year-on-year; nearly $250bn (see chart). In percentage terms, this is followed by coal (15%), energy end use and efficiency (12%) and the power sector (10%). (CONTINUED - 1085 WORDS)
