This new World Energy Investment 2023 (WEI 2023) report is the eighth in our annual series where we provide the global benchmark for tracking capital flows in the energy sector. The last few years have been a period of extreme disruption for the energy sector. The new WEI 2023 offers an opportunity to take stock of what this has meant for investment, and what those investments might mean in turn for the future security and sustainability of the energy sector.

The shock to the system from the global energy crisis has come at a time of increasingly visible impacts of a changing climate and has taken many forms. Price spikes created strong economic incentives to increase supply and to find alternative or more efficient ways to meet demand. Energy security shocks created powerful incentives for policy makers to reduce vulnerabilities and dependencies, while also – for many developing economies in particular – draining the financial resources available to address them.

In the new WEI 2023 we provide a full update on the investment picture in 2022 and an initial reading of the emerging picture for 2023. Huge uncertainties remain over how events will play out. But some important features of the new investment landscape are already visible, including the policies now in place that reinforce incentives for clean energy spending, the energy security lens through which many investments are now viewed, widespread cost and inflationary pressures, the major boost in revenues that high fuel prices are bringing to traditional suppliers, and burgeoning expectations in many countries that investments will be aligned with solutions to the climate crisis. The structure of this year’s WEI 2023 is as follows:

In Chapter 1 we present the overview and key findings. Chapter 2 covers the power sector, while Chapter 3 reviews the latest developments and trends in fuel supply investment. Chapter 4 deals with investment in energy efficiency and the end-use sectors, and Chapter 5 brings insights on energy research and development and innovation. The concluding Chapter 6 considers trends in energy finance.

While the focus of WEI 2023 is to track investment and financing trends in 2022 and provide an early indication for 2023, the report also benchmarks today’s trends against future scenarios from the IEA World Energy Outlook. The Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) is based on today’s policy settings and considers aspirational targets only insofar as they are backed by detailed policies. The Announced Pledges Scenario (APS) assumes that all climate commitments and net zero targets made by governments around the world will be met in full and on time. The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE Scenario) sets out a narrow but achievable pathway for the global energy sector to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.