Growth in global oil demand to slow from 2025, says IEA

Growth in global oil demand is expected to slow from 2025 as fuel efficiency improves and the use of electric vehicles increases, but consumption is unlikely to peak in the next two decades, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

The Paris-based IEA, which advises Western governments on energy policy, said in its annual World Energy Outlook for the period to 2040 that demand growth would continue to increase even though there would be a marked slowdown in the 2030s.The agency’s central scenario which incorporates existing energy policies and announced targets - is for demand for oil to rise by around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) on average every year to 2025, from 97 million bpd in 2018.

Demand is then seen increasing by 0.1 million bpd a year on average during the 2030s to reach 106 million bpd in 2040.

“There is a material slowdown after

2025, but this does not lead to a definitive peak in oil use,” the IEA said, citing incre-ased demand from trucks and the shipping, aviation and petchem sectors.

The IEA has been criticised by groups concerned about climate change who say the outlook underplays the speed at which the world could switch to renewable energy and undermines efforts to keep rise in global temperatures within

1.5-2 degrees Celsius. This year, the IEA renamed its main scenario “Stated Policies”, instead of

“New Policies”, to clarify that it reflects current policies. It is one of three scenarios used to show how energy demand could evolve over the next two decades.

This change is an improvement, said Joeri Rogelj of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.

But the IEA’s most ambitious scenario “remains inconsistent with 1.5 C and several aspects of the Paris Agreement and doesn’t present a scientifically consistent narrative”, he added.

The IEA outlook sees primary energy demand growing by a quarter by 2040, with renewable energy accounting for half of the rise.

New Delhi, Nov. 13: Increasing migration of flexible office space and coworking locations beyond metropolitan cities globally could contribute over $254 billion to local economies in the next decade, according to a study.

Flexible office operator Regus, the operating brand of International Workplace Group (IWG), conducted a study to analyze the socioeconomic benefits for local economies by growth of flexible workspaces in secondary towns and cities, and in suburban locations of major cities in 19 countries.

These 19 countries are — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

“The increasing migration of flexible office space and co-working locations to areas outside of major metropolitan cities globally is creating a ‘flex economy’ that could contribute more than $254 billion to local economies in the next decade,” Regus said.

It revealed that on average 121 new jobs are created in communities that contain a flexible workspace, with an extra $9.63 million going directly into the local economy.

By 2029, the ‘flex economy’ in India is expected to contribute an annual value around $14,663 million per annum (in terms of 2019 prices), of which about $5,737 million per annum will be retained by local economies.

The study also predicts, there could be a total of over 9,79,000 people working at local flexible workspaces across India, providing net additional employment opportunities for local residents amounting to nearly 4,03,000 jobs.

“This rise in local working is being largely driven by big companies adopting flexible working policies, moving away from relying on a single, central HQ and increasingly basing employees outside of the major metropolitan hubs in flex spaces. Most are doing so to improve employee wellbeing by allowing their people to work closer to home, and also to save money and boost productivity,” the statement said.

Across the 19 countries analysed, the average individual workspace sustains 218 jobs and in India, the average individual workspace sustains 235 jobs.

This includes temporary jobs created during the fitting-out stage too.