Africa could lead world on green energy, says IEA head

World Energy Report 2015 predicts Africa could be the first to power economic growth with renewable energy while India becomes one of the world's biggest energy consumers

Africa could be the first region in the world to power its economic development on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels such as coal, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) told a press conference yesterday.

"I'm very excited about this," said Fatih Birol as he launched the World Energy Report 2015. "When we look at the history of energy - in Europe, the US, China - economic development was realised by a substantial amount of coal. But in Africa, we may well see, for the first time, a region [realising] its economic growth using renewable energy."