According to the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2014, global investments required to supply energy needs will increase steadily to US$2,000bn/year until 2035, including US$550bn/year invested in energy efficiency. This will increase the cumulative global investment to more than US$48,000bn, including US$40,000bn in energy supply and US$8bn in energy efficiency. The IEA estimates that US$23,000bn will be invested in fossil fuel extraction, transport and oil refining, with nearly US$10,000bn invested in low carbon technologies (of which, US$1,000bn will be directed to nuclear and US$6,000bn in renewables) and US$7,000bn in transmission and distribution. Less than US$20,000bn will be invested to meet growth in energy demand; instead, the larger share of the investment in energy supply will be dedicated to offset declining production from existing oil and gas fields and to replace power plants and other assets that reach the end of their productive life͘. Nearly 2/3 of the investments (US$25,215bn) will be carried out in emerging economies, including US$5,745bn in China and US$2,203bn in India.
Source: IEA