Gas share in global power mix has declined for a fifth consecutive year

2025 marked the fifth consecutive year of decline in gas share in the global electricity mix, as clean power grew faster than electricity demand, limiting the need for a significant rise in gas generation and suggesting that the world may be nearing a peak in gas-fired power.

Global electricity demand more than doubled over the last two decades, increasing from 15,279 TWh in 2000 to 31,774 TWh in 2025, driven by industrialisation, rising living standards and electrification. Historically, much of this demand growth was met by fossil fuels, including gas. However, the role of gas in meeting new electricity demand is now changing as renewable power scales up rapidly across most countries.

Global gas power growth is slowing as clean electricity meets more demand

Since 2000, gas-fired electricity generation has continued to increase globally, but its role in meeting new electricity demand has weakened. Between 2001 and 2005, gas accounted for an average 33% of growth in global electricity demand at a time when renewable deployment remained limited.

In the decade following the Paris Agreement, several advanced economies expanded gas generation as part of efforts to reduce coal use or diversify power systems. Between 2016 and 2020, gas still accounted for an average 31% of growth in new electricity demand. However, as renewables deployment accelerated globally, gas accounted for only about 11% of demand growth between 2021 and 2025.

In 2025, gas accounted for less than 5% of global electricity demand growth, increasing by only 38 TWh (+0.6%). Solar alone grew by 636 TWh (+30%), 17 times more than gas, and met around 75% of global electricity demand growth.

Because gas generation grew more slowly than demand, its share in the global power mix fell for the fifth consecutive year, from 23.9% in 2020 to 21.8% in 2025. Although global gas generation has not yet peaked in absolute terms, these trends suggest that gas power is losing momentum as a source of global growth and may be approaching a structural peak.

Geopolitical disruptions have reinforced the downward trend in gas by exposing the price volatility and energy security risks associated with import-dependent gas systems. Major economies, including Germany, India, Japan and South Korea, have been committing to faster deployment of renewable sources as a response.