What is the place of fossil fuels in the energy transition?

ENERGY industry panellists at this year’s Singapore International Energy Week are probably correct in saying that fossil fuel usage will keep growing over the next decade, but probably wrong that this outcome is both inevitable and more equitable for developing countries.

Many panellists – including senior representatives from Singapore’s DBS Bank and Sembcorp Industries, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and the US Department of Energy – at the event held the view that fossil fuel usage will constitute a larger slice of the global energy mix by 2035.

That view appears to be an accurate reading of the current trend. The World Energy Outlook 2024 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that even though the world added a record amount of clean energy in 2023, two-thirds of the global growth in energy demand was still being met by fossil fuels.