Energy leaders from around the world met in Paris this week for the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Ministerial Meeting and 50th Anniversary, a two-day event that produced a strong commitment to safeguard energy security while speeding up clean energy transitions to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C within reach.
The meeting delivered a powerful consensus on the need for bolder action and greater global cooperation to swiftly transform the world’s energy system, with geopolitical uncertainty on the rise and global temperatures continuing to break records.
Ministers from the IEA’s 31 member countries laid out a series of mandates in a joint communique that will guide the Agency’s mission going forward. The mandates cover areas such as ensuring global energy security, with ministers recognising the threat posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East; marshalling the global energy sector’s fight against climate change; and boosting global financial flows for clean energy transitions, especially in emerging and developing economies.
Noting the Agency’s “significant input to global energy and climate policy” under Executive Director Fatih Birol – and commending work in recent years to deepen the IEA’s relationships with developing economies, with the IEA Family of countries now representing almost 80 per cent of global GDP – the ministers called upon the IEA to “continue to put climate change and sustainable development along with energy security at the centre of its activities and analysis.”
In the joint communique, IEA ministers recognised the significant focus on energy in the outcomes of COP28 and directed the IEA to take a leading role in ensuring their implementation. “We call upon the IEA to continue to track and report our delivery against key commitments, identifying barriers to progress, and providing members and the wider global community with recommendations on how to accelerate our national secure, clean energy transitions,” they said.
In a major announcement, IEA ministers also mandated the start of discussions with India in response to the Indian government’s request for full IEA membership in October 2023. Ministers recognised the “strategic importance” of India in tackling global energy and climate challenges.
“This meeting saw governments from around the world commend the IEA’s energy and climate leadership over the past 50 years. And they made it very clear that they’re counting on us to be even more impactful in the future,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “The IEA has received clear mandates from its members. We will redouble our efforts to lead the fight against climate change in the energy sector while ensuring the security of global energy supplies and working to increase energy access throughout the transition.”
Ministers at the meeting noted the continued importance of oil supply security to the global economy and emphasised the key role played by the IEA’s oil stockholding system. They also directed the IEA to develop a framework to advance the objectives that have been laid out for a voluntary IEA Critical Minerals Security Programme, which would look to boost the security of the supply chains for the crucial minerals needed for clean energy technologies.
And they called on the IEA to continue its strong work on expanding energy access and affordability, including for clean cooking; on advancing just, people-centred transitions to build a more inclusive energy economy; and on increasing clean energy investment in emerging and developing economies, where high borrowing costs and difficulty accessing capital are restraining energy transitions.
“The IEA wants to deliver secure and sustainable clean energy transitions for all people around the world,” Dr Birol said. “We are grateful that IEA ministers commended our work on ensuring transitions are equitable and people-centred and that they instructed us to go further. We intend to amplify our efforts to keep energy justice at the top of the global agenda, given the essential role it plays in building a better energy future.”
