PARIS: Global demand for electricity is slowing sharply this year due to sluggish economic growth and runaway energy prices and the trend will likely continue next year, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

“Electricity demand growth is slowing significantly in 2022,” the IEA wrote in its new Electricity Market Report.

“After global electricity demand grew by a strong six percent in 2021, propelled by rapid economic recovery as Covid-19 lockdowns eased, we expect growth to slow to 2.4 percent in 2022 — about the same as the average from 2015 to 2019,” it said.

“This reflects slower global economic growth, higher energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and renewed public health restrictions, particularly in China.”

The electricity sector’s carbon emissions were set to decline slightly this year, the report found.

“After having risen to an all-time high in 2021, CO2 emissions from the global electricity sector are set to decline in 2022, albeit by less than one percent,” it said. The agency said renewable sources of energy were growing faster than demand and replacing fossil fuels.

“Strong capacity additions are helping global renewable power generation towards growth of more than 10 percent in 2022,” the report said. Nevertheless, due to high gas prices and supply constraints, coal is replacing gas for power generation in markets with spare coal plant capacity, the IEA observed.