Steep fall in energy funding

Adelaide Advertiser
Thursday 12/11/2009 Page: 53

THE global financial crisis has led to a dangerous drop in energy investment around the world which could choke the economic recovery, the International Energy Agency stated yesterday. The IEA, a policy adviser to 28 mostly industrialised oil-consuming nations, estimates that the financial and economic crisis had led to a $US90 billion drop in global oil and gas investment this year, 19% less than in 2008. "Falling energy investment will have far reaching and, depending on how governments respond, potentially serious consequences for energy security, climate change and energy poverty," the IEA stated in its annual World Energy Outlook report. The resulting drop in oil and electricity supplies could "undermine the sustainability of the economic recovery", the IEA warned. Meanwhile, oil demand is set to continue rising over the next two decades.