Brazil has emerged as a leader in clean energy with one of the least-carbon intensive energy sectors in the world with renewables meeting almost 45% of primary energy demand. Since 2017, the IEA and Brazil have strengthened their bilateral cooperation, including last year's main focus on Brazil's G20 agenda. The IEA provided extensive support to help the country deliver numerous initiatives, such as expertise and analysis for two new horizontal taskforces, the Global Bioeconomy Initiative and the Taskforce for Global Mobilisation against Climate Change, and to five working groups in the Sherpa Track and Finance Track. The IEA's support for the G20 demonstrated how close cooperation can help advance national energy transitions. 

 

This collaboration reached a new significant milestone with the Energy Policy Review of Brazil, set to be released in the first half of 2025. In February, a review team from the IEA travelled to Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. Meeting with a range of stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Mines and Energy and institutions such as the Energy Research Office (EPE) and the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL), the review team discussed a range of topics such as increasing flexibility in the electricity sector, improving the mapping of energy-jobs and ensuring that oil and gas revenues contribute to financing the energy transition. The week had a parallel track on statistics to provide recommendations to guide the evolution of Brazil's energy data system. 

With electricity demand set to soar over the next three years through 2027, the world is entering a new Age of Electricity. Fuelled by growing industrial production, accelerating electrification, the expansion of data centres and the rising use of air conditioning, global electricity demand is set to grow at close to 4% annually through 2027. Much of the demand growth for electricity will come from emerging and developing economies, with China as the leader, though India, Southeast Asia and other emerging and developing economies will also see strong levels of demand growth. 

 

Electricity 2025 provides an analysis of trends and policy developments as electrification accelerates across the globe. In China, electricity consumption has been growing faster than its economy since 2020. Driven by intense heat waves, electricity demand in India increased and renewable power generation is set to rise to nearly 27% by 2027, up from 21% in 2024. Despite overall growth in emerging and developing markets, the picture in Africa is overshadowed by a lack of generation capacity. Although demand for electricity is growing, nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access. However, there are breakthroughs as Kenya is on track to achieve SDG7 universal access to electricity by 2030 and on-going projects in Senegal, such as a new substation in Touba, will mean that renewables will meet more than 40% of demand growth out to 2027.