PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An overnight report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revealed that Australia would play a major role in meeting the world’s growing energy demands, specifically in coal and uranium.

In its ‘World Energy Outlook 2014’, the IEA predicted that world primary energy demand would be about 37% higher by 2040, with growing demand expected to come from India, South-East Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

By that date, the mix of the world’s primary energy supply is expected to be divided into four almost-equal parts: oil, gas, coal and low-carbon sources, which include uranium-fuelled nuclear energy.

The IEA also noted that in the short term, the demand for natural gas was growing by more than half, with an increasingly flexible global trade in liquefied natural gas (LNG) offering some protection against the risk of supply disruptions.

Responding to the IEA report, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) on Thursday stated that the story for Australian coal was “unambiguously positive”, as the IEA predicted that Australia would regain its ranking as the world’s top coal exporter by 2030.

The global coal trade will grow by 40% by 2040, with high-quality Australian coal securing nearly two-fifths of that growth.

The MCA said that the forecasts undermined activists’ claims that coal risked becoming a “stranded asset”, adding that claims of the “peak-coal crowd” led by the Greens, were in tatters.

The demand growth would be driven by Australia’s neighbours in the Asian region, with China’s coal capacity expected to increase by 420 GW by 2040, some 40% more than the entire existing US coal generation capacity, while India would become the world’s largest coal importer by 2025, with imports trebling by 2040.

Coal demand in South-East Asia would quadruple by 2040, with coal use overtaking the US, while coal demand would also grow in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Queensland Resources Council (QRC) CEO Michael Roche said the outlook was positive for the resources sector despite the current downturn in commodity prices.

“And it’s not just coal that is set to grow with Queensland’s first LNG shipments from Gladstone scheduled for December. Australia's gas exports are set to increase from about 20-billion cubic metres in 2012 to 114-billion cubic metres by 2040 as global demand is forecast to grow more than any other fuel source.”

The IEA said fossil fuels would still make up about 75% of global energy supply by 2040.

Meanwhile, the outlook for uranium was also strong, with use expected to grow 90% by 2040, with the number of nations using uranium for nuclear energy generation growing from 31 to 36. Strong growth was expected in existing nuclear-nations, including China, India, Korea and Russia.

The IEA expected a uranium supply gap to open after 2020 as production at existing facilities declined and demand increased. Consequently, the outlook was positive for a recovery in prices and expanded Australian production and exports over the medium term.

The MCA said that the strong outlook for Australian energy exports over the medium term meant jobs, economic growth and revenue growth for federal and state governments across the country.