A record $2.2 trillion in clean energy investment for 2025 across the globe, which will be double the amount of financing awarded to oil, gas and coal projects combined, a new report from the International Energy Agency says. That number includes renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification projects worldwide.
The single largest component of the investment record is solar energy, both utility-scale and rooftop installations, which will hit $450 billion this year, the IEA says.
“Fierce competition among suppliers and ultra-low costs are seeing imported solar panels, often paired with batteries, become an important driver of energy investment in many emerging and developing economies.” the report notes.
The tenth edition of the IEA’s World Energy Investment shows that capital flows to the energy sector overall are set to rise 2% in 2025 to $3.3 trillion. Oil, gas and coal investment will hit $1.1 trillion. Coal is set for a 4% gain, down from 6% growth in 2024, with almost all of that growth coming in China and India.
The increased investment comes in the face of several headwinds for the world economy, including geopolitical uncertainty and tariff and trade tensions.
“Open questions about the economic and trade outlook means that some investors are adopting a wait-and-see approach to new project approvals, but we have yet to see significant implications for spending on existing projects,” the report says.
Clean energy highlights
Among other sustainability items of note in the report:
- Countries who are net importers of fossil fuels, led by China and Europe, accounted for 70% of the increased spending on clean energy. Another 20% of the increase came from the United States, where supportive policies were motivated in part by the desire to challenge China’s position in emerging clean technology supply chains.
- Ten years ago, investments in fossil fuel supply were 30% higher than those for electricity generation, grids and storage. Today, these positions are reversed. Investment in the electricity sector is set to reach $1.5 trillion in 2025, 50% higher than the total amount being spent on bringing oil, natural gas and coal to market.
- There is also increasing expenditure on the electrification of end uses, largely reflecting the additional cost of buying an electric vehicle versus an internal combustion engine model, even though many EV models being sold in China – the leading market for sales – are now competitive on an up-front basis with their conventional equivalents
- Chinese solar exports to developing economies surpassed those to advanced economies in early 2025, with countries such as Pakistan having imported a reported 19 GW in 2024 alone (equivalent to about half the country’s grid-connected electrical capacity). Global spending on batteries for power sector storage is set to reach $66 billion this year.
- Nuclear investment is making a comeback, rising by 50% over the past five years. Spending on new nuclear plants and refurbishments is set to exceed $70 billion, with the promise of further growth given the burgeoning interest in new technologies such as small modular reactors.
- Investment in low-emissions fuels is set to reach a new high in 2025, but at less than $30 billion, it remains small in absolute terms and projects remain heavily dependent on policy and regulatory support. If all approved projects for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) move ahead, then investments in CCUS will rise more than tenfold by 2027 from current levels.
- Some hydrogen projects have been cancelled or delayed in the past 12 months, but there remains a pipeline of approved projects that requires around $8 billion of investment in 2025, almost double the level seen in 2024.
- The rise of sustainable finance over the last decade is facing headwinds. Some elements are still robust, notably sustainable debt issuances, led by green bonds. But the previous flurry of activity from financial institutions to ‘green’ their own practices has slowed, as regulatory and policy support has ebbed in key markets.
- Investment flows are not yet on track to deliver on the renewable and efficiency goals agreed at COP28. The annual investment required in renewable power still needs to double to achieve a tripling of installed renewable capacity by 2030, accompanied by rising spending on grids, storage and other forms of flexibility to ensure secure and cost-effective utilization of this capacity.
- Spending on efficiency and electrification needs to almost triple within the next five years to deliver a 4% annual energy intensity improvement by the end of the decade.
Read more: Alba Forns and the solar-financing platform Climatize
