The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Investment 2026 report, published late May[1], shows that global capital flowing into the energy sector is set to reach USD 3.4 trillion this year, a 5% increase on 2025, with clean energy attracting nearly twice the investment of oil, natural gas and coal combined. Around USD 2.2 trillion is directed at renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification, compared with approximately USD 1.2 trillion for fossil fuels. For UK businesses already navigating elevated energy costs and a procurement market that has rarely been more complex, the scale of that shift carries direct and practical implications.
The report, the IEA’s 11th annual edition, arrives at a moment of acute uncertainty in global energy markets, with the ongoing Middle East conflict having disrupted supply routes and shaken investor confidence across multiple asset classes. Despite that backdrop, the structural shift in investment flows towards clean energy is not only continuing but accelerating in several key areas.
Clean Energy Investment Is No Longer a Marginal Story
Solar alone now attracts USD 365 billion in annual investment, equivalent to USD 1 billion deployed every single day. Wind investment follows at USD 200 billion, grid spending is up nearly 20% year-on-year to USD 550 billion, and battery storage for the power sector has exceeded USD 100 billion for the first time in the dataset. Nuclear is also staging a genuine and sustained comeback, with 78 GW of new capacity currently under construction across 15 countries and annual investment now running above USD 80 billion. Electricity-related spending accounts for nearly 60% of all global energy investment, a figure that reflects just how fundamentally the energy system is being reoriented around electrification rather than combustion.
John Haw, CEO of UK energy procurement firm Fidelity Energy, said: “The IEA’s numbers this year are striking, and businesses that are still treating the energy transition as a distant or abstract concern need to look at this data more carefully.”
He adds: “Nearly two dollars flowing into clean energy for every one going into fossil fuels is not a forecast or a projection. it is what is happening now, and the pace of capital reallocation is accelerating rather than plateauing. The organisations best placed to benefit from that shift are the ones that have already started making structural decisions about how they buy and manage energy, not the ones still waiting for a more settled market.”
Geopolitical Risk Is Driving Investment Decisions in Ways That Will Be Felt Well Beyond the Middle East
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has introduced a level of complexity into energy investment markets that the IEA describes as significant and lasting. More than 30 energy facilities in the region have been damaged, and confidence in the reliability of the Strait of Hormuz [through which the majority of Gulf energy exports had previously flowed] has been materially undermined. Oil supply investment is expected to fall below USD 500 billion in 2026 for the third consecutive year, while natural gas supply investment is set to reach USD 330 billion, the highest in a decade, driven principally by LNG export development in the United States and Qatar.
For UK businesses, the relevance is not abstract. Disruption to global LNG supply chains and upward pressure on long-term financing costs for energy projects feed directly into the wholesale price environment and into the terms available on long-term procurement contracts. The IEA is explicit that the conflict has pushed up borrowing costs for capital-intensive clean energy projects, which matters for the pace and pricing of the renewable infrastructure the UK needs to build.
John Haw, CEO of UK energy procurement firm Fidelity Energy, said: “What the IEA is describing is an investment landscape that is being reshaped by geopolitical risk in real time, and the effects are not confined to the countries directly involved in the conflict.”
He notes: “UK businesses that have been operating on the assumption that energy markets would gradually normalise are dealing with a world where the definition of normal has shifted considerably. The case for taking a more active and structured approach to energy procurement [rather than defaulting to short-term contracts or rolling positions forward] has not been stronger in recent memory.”
Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming a Material Driver of Global Energy Demand and the UK Cannot Afford to Ignore It
One of the most consequential findings in this year’s IEA report is the scale of energy demand now being generated by artificial intelligence infrastructure. Gas turbine orders surged to 130 GW in 2025, a 25-year high, with US data centre demand identified as a primary driver. Total global investment in data centre energy infrastructure exceeded USD 100 billion in 2025, a figure the IEA notes is larger than the entire energy sector investment across Africa in the same year. The tech sector now accounts for around 40% of all corporate power purchase agreements signed globally, a share that has grown rapidly and shows no sign of stabilising.
The implications extend well beyond the United States. Competition for gas turbines and grid-connected generation capacity is already constraining availability for other markets. UK businesses should be alert to the fact that sustained AI-driven power demand growth is feeding into wholesale gas and electricity pricing in ways that are not temporary or cyclical but structural.
John Haw, CEO of UK energy procurement firm Fidelity Energy, said: “The energy implications of artificial intelligence are moving considerably faster than most businesses have factored into their planning. The IEA’s data makes clear that data centres are already reshaping gas markets and power investment on a global scale [and the effects on UK wholesale prices are real and ongoing].”
He also adds: “For any business with meaningful energy spend, that reinforces the case for locking in long-term renewable contracts or investing in on-site generation not as an environmental gesture but as a straightforward commercial hedge against sustained upward price pressure.”
Coal’s Return to a 14-Year Investment High Is an Uncomfortable but Important Finding
Alongside the broadly encouraging picture on clean energy, the IEA report contains a finding that warrants serious attention rather than a footnote: global coal supply investment is set to reach USD 180 billion in 2026, the highest level since 2012. China accounts for nearly 70% of that figure, and India’s coal investment has tripled over the past decade. The Middle East crisis is expected to reinforce coal spending across Asian markets in the near term, as countries prioritise keeping existing assets operational in a period of elevated supply uncertainty. Outside of China, coal investment in aggregate is falling, but the headline number is a clear reminder that the global energy transition is not proceeding at a uniform pace or in a straight line.
For UK businesses, this matters because commodity markets do not operate in isolation. Sustained coal demand in Asia affects LNG pricing, influences shipping and infrastructure investment, and ultimately feeds into the wholesale energy prices that appear on UK balance sheets.
John Haw, CEO of UK energy procurement firm Fidelity Energy, said: “Coal investment at a 14-year high is an uncomfortable data point in a report that otherwise tells a compelling story about the acceleration of clean energy, and it would be a mistake to dismiss it as someone else’s problem.”
He concluded by noting: “What happens in Asian energy markets has a direct bearing on the price environment UK businesses are operating in [and anyone suggesting the global transition is linear or inevitable on a short time horizon is not engaging honestly with the evidence]. The transition is real and the direction of travel is clear, but the path is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest, and business energy strategies need to reflect that complexity.”