An energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit natural gas, coal, electricity and oil markets, delivering what the International Energy Agency calls a shock of “unprecedented breadth and complexity ”. The tumult has upended the world’s energy order. As the World Energy Outlook put it: “Many of the contours of this new world are not yet fully defined, but there is no going back to the way things were.”

Surging costs of fossil fuels are a powerful incentive to hasten the transition to a greener, more sustainable energy system. For the first time, global demand for each of the world’s fossil fuels shows “a peak or plateau” across all scenarios envisioned in the World Energy Outlook.

But rising costs come with concerns for energy security which could have other impacts – for the present and the future. The Energy Outlook 2023 by The Economist Intelligence Unit , predicts that, in the coming year, coal consumption will grow to compensate for gaps in gas supplies, and investment in renewables will weaken, despite the increasing returns to renewable energy investment.