IEA Chief Says Electrification Drive Intact as Seoul Launches RISE ASIA
IEA and South Korea launch RISE ASIA energy security partnership, targeting 35% electrification across Asia by 2035, as Birol cites grid and cost barriers.
The global push toward electrification continues to draw capital even as grid constraints and affordability concerns persist, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said in Seoul on Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference alongside South Korea's Energy Minister Kim Sung-whan, Birol said electricity demand is rising three times faster than overall energy demand. He noted that 61% of global energy investment this year has flowed into electricity, compared with 39% for fossil fuels.
Asked about the risk of over-investment in power infrastructure, including worries that artificial intelligence spending could slow over existential risk fears, Birol said electrification was "not a rose garden" but that its direction was clear.
He identified two main obstacles: inadequate grid capacity to connect power generation with consumption centres, and the need to keep electricity cheap enough that consumers prefer it to fossil fuels. Governments could tackle the cost barrier through financing measures, he said.
The remarks came as the two officials launched a new energy security partnership called Resilient & Integrated Strategy for Energy Security in Asia, or RISE ASIA. Kim said the initiative would first focus on coordinating responses to the energy crunch that followed the war in Iran, and over the longer term on moving Asian economies away from fossil fuels.
Seoul and the IEA plan to work with other Asian countries toward a target of 35% electrification by 2035, to be announced around the COP31 climate summit, Kim said. Birol said the agency's near-term priority would be Southeast Asia, adding that South Korea's manufacturing base — including production of batteries, wires, cables and transformers — gave the programme a practical advantage for electrifying the wider region.
On surging Asian liquefied natural gas prices amid Middle East instability, Birol said the war's impact on exporter Qatar had strained markets, and warned conditions could tighten further as Europe, having cut energy ties with Russia, imports more LNG. A harsh European winter could set off competition between European and Asian buyers for cargoes, driving prices higher, he said. New LNG projects due online in the United States, Canada, Australia and Malaysia should ease pressure within a few years, he added.