While low-emissions technologies, nuclear, storage, and grid expansions pull in $2.2 trillion, leaving traditional oil, gas, and coal trailing behind, fossil fuel extraction is continuing to command a $1.2 trillion slice of the market.
Driven by persistent geopolitical energy shocks, global investments are fuelling a nuclear comeback and a surge in clean infrastructure deployment looking toward 2027. Fatih Birol, IEA’s Executive Director, has warned that markets will not revert to pre-war conditions in 2027.
Highlighting persistent supply security risks, high fuel pressures, and a rush toward clean tech and nuclear resilience, the ongoing supply vulnerabilities and diesel and gas constraints across Europe appear to be bringing in a permanent shift in how nations approach energy security and infrastructure investment.
The IEA has underlined a four-decade high in nuclear power construction alongside the broader $3.4 trillion investment wave, accelerating the race toward grids, efficiency, and storage. Birol is convinced the Hormuz crisis is leading governments to rethink energy priorities and to seek to diversify partners, trade routes, fuels, and technologies.
Given that the global energy crisis will continue to cast a long shadow into 2027, based on IEA leadership’s take on the situation, lingering supply bottlenecks and fractured trade routes are locking in a high-alert era for global energy security.
Back in May 2026, the IEA’s ‘World Energy Investment’ report outlined that the conflict in the Middle East was expected to make energy security a top priority among decision-makers, as its effects were being felt most directly in the Middle East and Asia, which had been the destination for 80-90% of energy exports from Gulf producers.
