New Delhi: India’s full membership in final stages: IEA
New Delhi: India’s full membership to the International Energy Agency (IEA) is in its final stages, Fatih Birol, executive director of IEA said on Thursday during a press conference on the agency’s ministerial meeting this week in Paris.
IEA member governments unanimously agreed to move ahead on building deeper institutional ties with Brazil, Colombia, India and Vietnam – and to expand cooperation on critical minerals through the IEA’s Critical Minerals Security Programme, the IEA said. Key member governments include the United States, Japan, Germany, the UK, Canada, France, and Australia, with the European Commission.
“In a strong step forward for global energy governance, key countries such as Brazil, Colombia, India and Vietnam will strengthen their ties with the IEA. This puts the IEA family’s share of global energy use at more than 80%, up from less than 40% ten years ago. With major energy issues high on the international agenda, we stand ready to support governments with the insights they need to plan for the future, helping leaders deliver on their goals of ensuring greater energy security, affordability and sustainability,” he added in a statement.
Responding to a request from the Brazilian government, IEA members agreed to invite Brazil to begin the process of becoming a full member. They also welcomed recent developments in discussions with India following the Indian government’s request to become a full IEA member. And Vietnam was announced as the newest member of the IEA family, joining as an association country, the IEA said.
Ahead of the ministerial, the US threatened to quit IEA unless the organisation scales back climate change advocacy.
“We’re definitely not satisfied,” US energy secretary Chris Wright had said. The IEA ministerial chair’s summary released on Thursday said: “Ministers reaffirmed the IEA’s central role in energy security. Its all-fuels and all-technologies approach, grounded in robust energy data and analysis, remains as crucial as ever, including for the shift to more domestically produced, electrified and sustainable energy systems.”
The focus was not on climate change and transition to net zero emissions of the summary. However, the summary said: “A large majority of ministers stressed the importance of the energy transition to combat climate change and highlighted the global transition to net zero emissions in line with COP28 outcomes. In this context, a wide range of ministers underlined that energy transitions are a means to enhance energy independence, security and affordability, decarbonisation, health, and other social benefits, and reiterated the importance of energy efficiency and meeting the renewable energy targets.
“They expressed strong interest in the IEA secretariat’s continued work on tracking progress of the energy transition and called for a continued focus on energy security, energy efficiency, renewable energy, affordability and emissions reductions, in line with the IEA’s current focus.”
On Wednesday, Antonio Guterres argued for a dedicated global platform for policymakers and business producers is needed to help accelerate the clean energy transition in his message to the IEA ministerial.
“The world’s addiction to fossil fuels is one of the greatest threats to global stability & prosperity. That’s why I am calling for a dedicated global platform to deliver a fair, orderly, affordable transition plan away from fossil fuels aligned with 1.5 degrees objectives. Let’s make the clean energy transition unstoppable,” he wrote on X.
In a special declaration, ministers from IEA member countries endorsed expanding cooperation under the IEA Critical Minerals Security Programme to address rising risks to global critical mineral supply chains. Highlighting the programme as a key international platform for ensuring mineral security, they called for the IEA to continue to build out its data tools, while expanding collaborative exercises and guidance on topics such as stockpiling. Such measures, they said, would support broader efforts to diversify mineral supply chains and build resilience to supply shocks.
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