America’s ‘Renaissance’ to Gains for Renewables: Global Energy Trends
It is much more difficult to reduce the use of coal, gas
and oil in sectors like transportation and industry than it is in power generation, and the share of fossil fuels used to meet overall energy demand will be 75 percent in 2040, compared with 81 percent last year, according to the agency’s main scenario.
13, 2017
LONDON — From the rise of renewable power to the transformation of the United States into a heavyweight producer of oil
and gas, the global energy market, normally slow to evolve, is going through major upheaval.
Mr. Birol said, for instance, said that the decision by power plants in United States to switch from burning coal to gas was largely
responsible for holding global emissions roughly steady in recent years (although they appear poised to rise this year).
The United States, for instance, has shifted from being an energy-dependent importer to
a new role as one of the world’s biggest producers of oil and gas, the report says.
By the 2030s, largely because of production from shale-rock formations, the United States is
expected to produce more than 30 million barrels of oil and gas a day, the report says.
The shale industry has gone through a "trial by fire" in recent years, the report says, referring to
a sharp falloff in the price of oil from more than $100 a barrel to as low as around $30 a barrel.