In just two decades, the Middle East and North Africa's electricity consumption has tripled, rising by more than 1,000 terawatt-hours -a surge that places it behind only China and India as a driver of global power demand.
Driven by extreme heat and water scarcity, the International Energy Agency IEA projects that power demand across the region will rise by 50 by 2035 in order to meet liveable conditions, the equivalent of adding Germany and Spain's combined electricity use. Meeting that demand under current trends would mean burning roughly 2.8 million barrels of oil and 500 billion cubic metres of gas each year.
In its latest report on the future of electricity in the Middle East and North Africa , the IEA warns that this rise in demand could deepen the region's dependence on gas-fired power particularly in North Africa, where natural gas and oil already provide around 90 of electricity generation.