About this report
The World Energy Outlook (WEO) is the gold standard of long-term energy analysis. The 2018 edition provides updated analysis to show what the latest data, technology trends and policy announcements might mean for the energy sector to 2040. It also outlines an integrated way to meet multiple sustainable development goals: limiting the global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, addressing air pollution, and ensuring universal access to energy. These points of orientation allow for rigorous thinking about the future against a backdrop of cost reductions in key clean energy technologies, the continued vitality of shale in the United States, and the fast-changing dynamics of energy investment. WEO 2018 includes a special focus on electricity. The future is electrifying, with low-carbon technologies on the rise and electricity demand set to grow at twice the pace of energy demand as a whole. But what will tomorrow’s power sector look like? How will it incentivise investment and ensure reliable supply, and what share of our total energy needs can ultimately be met by electricity? The 2018 WEO also examines the emissions intensities of different sources of oil and gas as well as what can be done to reduce them, and extends the Sustainable Development Scenario to include the linkages between energy and water. The WEO 2018 series features a special report on producer economies that explores how traditional oil and gas-exporting countries are adapting to a new price and policy environment, and what are the implications of longer-term structural changes in demand.