NEW DELHI: The International Energy Agency on Thursday said renewables will be the only energy source that will be resilient to the coronavirus pandemic wiping out demand for energy the most since World War-II and seven times greater than the slump caused by the global financial crisis.According to the agency’s World Energy Review, energy demand is expected to fall 6% this year. In absolute terms, this is unprecedented and equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer. Each month of worldwide lockdown at the levels seen in early April is seen reducing annual global energy demand by about 1.5%.The report said electricity demand is set to decline by 5% in 2020, the largest drop since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This is because lockdowns have resulted in significant declines in overall electricity demand, with consumption levels and patterns on weekdays looking like those of a pre-crisis Sunday. Full lockdowns have pushed down electricity demand by 20% or more such as in India, which has seen a 26% drop in consumption.This is bad news for coal -- the main fuel for power generation in large parts of the world -- which has been hit very badly in the current crisis. “Coal is particularly hard hit, with global demand projected to fall by 8% in the current year, the largest decline since the Second World War. Following its 2018 peak, coal-fired power generation is set to fall by more than 10% this year,” the report said.Global oil demand is expected to fall a record 9.3 million barrels per day (bpd), or 9% of daily supply, while demand for gas is expected to fall by 5%. Oil demand fell by 5% over the first quarter but could ultimately be the worst-hit fuel over 2020, with total demand down as much as 9%.The slump in fossil fuel demand, particularly coal, would lead to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions of 8%, six times larger than the biggest fall of 400 million tonnes recorded in 2009 following the global financial crisis. “But given the number of deaths and the economic trauma around the world, the historic decline in global emissions is absolutely nothing to cheer, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said while releasing the review.Describing its projections as "conservative", the IEA report urged governments to seize on the disruptions to build greener energy infrastructure – an area where India is progressing apace as part of its larger climate goal of reducing the economy’s carbon footprint.“This is a historic shock to the entire energy world. Amid today’s unparalleled health and economic crises, the plunge in demand for nearly all major fuels is staggering, especially for coal, oil and gas. Only renewables are holding up during the previously unheard-of slump in electricity use. It is still too early to determine the longer-term impacts, but the energy industry that emerges from this crisis will be significantly different from the one that came before,” Birol said.