PARIS - The energy industry is set to suffer a record drop in investment due to the coronavirus fallout, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, and while renewables are likely to fare better than oil, any swift economic recovery could create a global fuel crunch.
"All the energy sectors - oil, gas, renewables - everything is affected but the biggest impact is on shale oil," the agency's director Fatih Birol told AFP in an interview. "Even though this 'clean' spending is set to dip in 2020, its share in total energy investment is set to rise," it noted. "There is a risk that today's cutbacks lead to future market imbalances, prompting new energy price cycles or volatility," it said.
"We hope to see a clean energy transition, this should be an orderly energy transition, well designed so it doesn't cause any crisis, any shock," he said.Birol signalled in this regard a concerning jump in approvals for coal projects in Asia.