BEIJING, April 7. /TASS/. The role of alternative energy sources will grow in the long run globally despite the recent significant increase in conventional energy consumption, Board Chairman of the China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC) Song Hailiang told TASS.

"In order to mitigate the energy crisis and respond to the challenges of climate change, all countries are striving to strengthen their capacity for autonomous control of national energy resources," Song said. "So in the short term, there has been an increase in coal consumption, which has dealt a blow to the low-carbon transition. In the long term, however, we should expect a global energy transformation," the chairman said.

Profound changes leading to dramatic oil price fluctuations have occurred over the last year on the world’s energy market, the CEEC chairman noted. "Transformations in the supply and demand structure driven by the geopolitical situation" occurred at the same time, resulting in a more strained situation with supplies, he said.

"Difficulties have arisen in all countries in regard to the energy transformation process," Song said. Global coal consumption gained 1.2% in 2022 and was above 8 bln, along with natural gas demand growth, he noted.

At the same time, "a significant increase in the intensity of efforts to develop new energy sources" can be observed lately, the chief executive added.