Cop31: World is now in 'age of electricity', energy agency chief says

Excluding China, sales of electric cars have risen by 60% in the last nine months, the IEA says. File picture

The world has left behind the age of coal, oil and gas and is now firmly in “the age of electricity”, the world’s leading energy economist has said.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said more than twice as much electricity generation would be added to the global economy in the next decade as in the last, as countries scramble to secure their energy supplies against fossil fuel price volatility and supply shocks, such as the Iran war.