With fossil fuel growth and demand set to peak within the next five years, the world is on the verge of a new “age of electricity”, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The Turkish economist and energy expert, speaking on Wednesday in a press release, pointed to surplus oil and gas supplies leading to a surge in investment in green energy.

Birol, speaking in the release alongside the agency’s annual report, said in the “second half of this decade, the prospect of more ample – or even surplus – supplies of oil and natural gas, depending on how geopolitical tensions evolve, would move us into a very different energy world”.

The body added that large global conflicts highlighted the need for investment to speed up the transition to cleaner and more secure technologies.

The body also reported that a record high level of clean energy came online last year, including more than 560GW of renewable power capacity.

Additional research from the agency in July indicated that growing global demand for energy and petrochemicals, coupled with ongoing energy security concerns, could prompt rising demand for oil into 2030, despite the rapid deployment of green energy. 

The IEA found that oil markets face challenges as medium-term structural shifts are expected to cause excess supply in six years’ time, with green and energy-saving technologies helping to gradually slow the pace of oil demand growth.