In the post-COVID-19 era, the demand for conventional energy is still huge. The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its Global Energy Review 2021 on Tuesday, predicting that this year's demand for coal and natural gas would exceed that of 2019.

The IEA expects the demand for global energy to grow by 4.6% in 2021, that's enough to offset the 4% contraction in 2020 and 0.5% higher than that in 2019, indicating a return to pre-epidemic levels. Nearly 70% of the growing global energy demand is expected to come from emerging markets and developing economies, and the demand in these countries is expected to increase by 3.4% over 2019, while energy used in developed economies remains 3% lower than that before the epidemic.

Global demand for all fossil fuels is expected to grow significantly in 2021, with the demand for coal and natural gas expected to exceed that of 2019 and coal demand to approach its peak in 2014. The demand for crude oil has recovered more slowly, expected to grow by 6.2% in 2021, but still about 3% lower than that of 2019.

In response to the surge in demand for conventional energy in 2021, IEA expects global energy-related CO2 emissions to rise by nearly 5% this year, to 33 billion tonnes and 1.5 billion tonnes higher than that of 2020, which is expected to be the largest increase since 2010 and the second highest on record.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, warned that unless governments around the world act quickly to reduce emissions, we are likely to face an even worse situation in 2022.

Notably, renewable energy also performs well in 2021, accounting for more than half of global electricity supply growth. China's performance is particularly impressive. China alone is responsible for nearly half of the global growth in renewable power generation, with photovoltaic and wind capacity expected to exceed 900TWh in 2021, compared with about 580TWh in the European Union and 550TWh in the US.