International Energy Agency

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector. The 31 member countries and 11 association countries of the IEA represent 75% of global energy demand.

The IEA was set up under the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis to respond to physical disruptions in global oil supplies, provide data and statistics about the global oil market and energy sector, promote energy savings and conservation, and establish international technical collaboration on innovation and research. Since its founding, the IEA has also coordinated use of the oil reserves that its members are required to hold.

In subsequent decades, the IEA's role expanded to cover the entire global energy system, encompassing traditional fuels such as gas, and coal as well as cleaner and fast-growing energy sources and technologies including renewable energy sources; solar photovoltaics, wind power, biofuels as well as nuclear power, and hydrogen, and the critical minerals needed for these technologies.

The core activity of the IEA is providing policy advice to its 31 member states, as well as to its 11 Associated countries, which include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Ukraine, Singapore, Thailand, Egypt and Morocco to support their energy security and advance their transition to clean energy. The Agency publishes policy recommendations and solutions to help all countries ensure secure, affordable and sustainable energy, as well as analysis, roadmaps, policy reviews, detailed data on more than 150 countries. Recently, it has focused in particular on supporting global efforts to accelerate clean energy transition, mitigate climate change, and reach net zero emissions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic set off a global health and economic crisis in early 2020, the IEA called on governments to ensure that their economic recovery plans focus on clean energy investments in order to create the conditions for a sustainable recovery and long-term structural decline in carbon emissions.

In May 2021, the IEA published a roadmap for the global energy sector to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5 °C. All IEA member countries have signed the Paris Agreement which aims to limit warming to 1.5 °C, and two thirds of IEA member governments have made commitments to emission neutrality by 2050.

In March 2022, the IEA's Ministerial Meeting gave the agency a broader mandate to focus on the clean energy transition. The IEA has been criticised for historically undervaluing the role of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics in future energy systems as well as under-estimating their declining cost. Environmental groups, investors and companies have been urging the IEA to do more to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The IEA's current executive director is Fatih Birol, who took office in late 2015. Birol was re-appointed for a third term in March 2022. IEA publishes a range of reports and other information including its flagship publication, the annual ''World Energy Outlook'', as well as the ''Net Zero by 2050'' report. Provided by Wikipedia