IEA Features Fusion in State of Energy Innovation 2026 Report
On February 17, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its report on The State of Energy Innovation 2026, featuring fusion alongside other emerging energy technologies. The report serves as an annual assessment of energy innovation for policymakers, and was released ahead of the IEA Ministerial Meeting and Energy Innovation Forum held in Paris, France. The IEA puts fusion on equal footing with other emerging technologies – highlighting its status, key milestones, and challenges as it accelerates to commercialization at scale.
Throughout 2025, fusion energy saw engineering and technological breakthroughs coupled with major commitments from private investors and governments around the world. The report notes that “a race to develop commercial fusion energy is spurring new strategies and funding. While public support for international collaboration on fusion energy continues, such as for ITER, recent initiatives reflect a shift towards domestic commercialisation roadmaps and projects.”
On “the case for strengthened innovation,” the report emphasizes the importance of continued partnerships across technologies, public and private sectors, and countries to accelerate commercial timelines. It outlines remaining challenges in fusion across engineering, materials testing, and fuel cycles – and notes how international collaboration can accelerate progress. The report also states that global cooperation can achieve “regulatory approaches that protect citizens while enabling faster permitting for lower radioactivity levels compared with nuclear fission.”
“To date, fusion energy research has been notable for high levels of collaboration between public programmes, companies and different countries, which will continue to be essential through the next stages of testing and scale-up.”
IEA State of Energy Innovation 2026 Report
More broadly, the report details the ten key priorities and policy gaps identified in the 2025 report that require increased attention from governments and other stakeholders to address emerging energy innovation challenges. It notes that while some progress has been made, additional efforts are still needed across energy innovation investment, policy design and delivery, access to research and testing facilities, and global innovation capacity.
To track, encourage, and share progress towards scaling up the emerging technologies, the IEA identified demonstration milestones that different institutions and companies are trying to achieve by 2030 – including a key milestone for fusion: “First fusion plant to demonstrate the technical viability of producing saleable energy.” You can follow the milestones’ phases of progress with an interactive tracking tool on the IEA website.
