Wafa Jafri
Partner and UK Lead for Energy and Natural Resources Strategy, KPMG in the UK
Access to affordable, reliable energy is becoming a defining source of national and commercial competitiveness.
For years, the dominant narrative has been that the world is moving through one shared transition: from fossil fuels to cleaner, more electrified systems. The latest Statistical Review of World Energy tells a more complicated and less comfortable story.
Total energy demand continues to rise across every major source.
At the same time, clean energy is scaling at pace. Solar generation grew by 30% in 2025, global installed battery capacity rose by 66%, and electrification continues to accelerate as economies invest in digitalisation, EVs and advanced manufacturing.
Yet fossil fuels still account for 86% of global energy supply and emissions continue to increase.
This is not a smooth transition. It is a disorderly one.
The global picture masks increasingly different national realities. Clean technologies are growing, but not at the same pace, from the same starting point or for the same reasons in every country. Each economy is making different choices about fuels, technologies and infrastructure, shaped by its resources, affordability constraints, security concerns and ambitions for growth. The result is not one orderly global transition, but multiple pathways towards energy resilience.
energy cannot be treated as an operational cost.
It is a strategic input influencing investment decisions,
supply chain resilience and growth
China is expanding clean energy at extraordinary speed while maintaining fossil fuel reserves as protection against supply shocks. The US is strengthening both hydrocarbons and clean power. Europe is reducing reliance on Russian gas while facing new dependencies on LNG and critical minerals. India is accelerating electrification to support growth and reduce import exposure. The Middle East is growing renewables while continuing to maximise value from hydrocarbons.
These are different energy choices, reflecting different national priorities. The common thread is not decarbonisation alone, but the pursuit of resilience and affordability. A system that is secure but prohibitively expensive is not truly resilient. High energy prices weaken industrial competitiveness, increase pressure on households and can undermine long-term investment.
As economies electrify, the race to secure affordable and reliable power is fast becoming a race for competitiveness. Global electricity demand is growing almost twice as fast as overall energy demand, with AI and data centres accelerating that pressure further. Meeting demand will depend not only on generating more electricity, but on building the grids, storage and transmission networks needed to deliver it.
For business leaders, the message is clear: energy cannot be treated as an operational cost. It is a strategic input influencing investment decisions, supply chain resilience and growth.
The winners of the next phase of the transition may not be those that move fastest on clean energy, but those that build the strongest systems around it.
The global energy system is no longer moving along one route towards one destination. It is becoming a competition between different models of affordability, security, resilience and growth.
