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International Energy Agency

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International Energy Agency (IEA)
Logo of International Energy Agency (IEA)
Logo
IEA member states (green).
IEA member states (green).
SecretariatFrance Paris, France
Membership28 member states
Leaders
• Executive Director
Netherlands Maria van der Hoeven
• Deputy Executive Director
United States Kenneth J. Fairfax
• Chief Economist
Turkey Fatih Birol
Establishment1974
Website
www.iea.org

The International Energy Agency (IEA; French: Agence internationale de l'énergie) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.

The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with non-member countries, especially China, India, and Russia. The Agency's mandate has broadened to focus on the "3Es" of effectual energy policy: energy security, economic development, and environmental protection.[1] The latter has focused on mitigating climate change.[2] The IEA has a broad role in promoting alternate energy sources (including renewable energy), rational energy policies, and multinational energy technology co-operation.

IEA member countries are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year's net imports. At the end of July 2009, IEA member countries held a combined stockpile of almost 4,300,000,000 barrels (680,000,000 m3) of oil.

On March 11, 2011, Former Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven, was selected Executive Director.[3][4] On 1 September 2011, she succeeded in this position Nobuo Tanaka.[5] The Deputy Executive Director is Kenneth J. Fairfax.

History

The IEA was established to meet the industrial countries' energy organization needs in the wake of the 1973–1974 oil crisis. Although the OECD had structures such as the Council, the Executive Committee, the Oil Committee, and the Energy Committee that could potentially deal with energy questions, it could not respond effectively to the crisis. The OECD had adopted the Oil Apportionment Decision [C(72)201(Final)], laying out procedures to be carried out in the event of an oil supply emergency in Europe, but these procedures were not implemented during the crisis. In addition, the OECD had adopted recommendations on oil stockpiling in Europe, but due to their limited scope, these measures could have only a limited role in an oil supply emergency.[6]

Establishment of the new organization was proposed by United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his address to the Pilgrims Society in London on 12 December 1973. Also in December 1973, at the summit of the European Communities in Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen, who chaired the summit, declared that the summit found it "useful to study with other oil-consuming countries within the framework of the OECD ways of dealing with the common short and long term energy problems of consumer countries."

At the Washington Energy Conference on 11-13 February 1974, the ministers of thirteen principal oil consumer countries stated "the need for a comprehensive action program to deal with all facets of the world energy situation by cooperative measures. In so doing they will build on the work of the OECD."[7]

While creating a new energy organization, it was decided to utilize the framework of the OECD, as it had experience in dealing with oil and other energy questions, had expertise in economic analysis and statistics, had established staff, physical facilities, legal status and privileges and immunities, and was the principal organization of the industrial countries. However, the OECD has a rule of unanimity, and not all member states were ready to participate. Therefore, instead of an integrated approach, an autonomous approach was chosen.[8]

The IEA was created on 18 November 1974 by the Agreement on an International Energy Program (I.E.P. Agreement).[9]

During its history, the IEA has intervened in oil markets three times by releasing oil stocks — in 1991 during the Gulf War, in 2005 by releasing 2 million barrels per day (320×10^3 m3/d) for a month after Hurricane Katrina affected US production, and most recently in 2011 to offset continued disruption to oil supplies as a result of the 2011 Libyan civil war.[10]

Member states

Only the OECD member states can become members of the IEA. Except for Chile, Estonia, Iceland, Israel, Mexico, and Slovenia, all OECD member states are members of the IEA. In 2013,  Estonia was invited to became the 29th member.[11] There are 28 members:

 Australia
 Austria
 Belgium
 Canada
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Ireland
 Italy
 Japan
 South Korea
 Luxembourg
 Netherlands
 New Zealand
 Norway
 Poland
 Portugal
 Slovakia
 Spain
 Sweden
  Switzerland
 Turkey
 United Kingdom
 United States

Critics

Ahead of the launch of the 2009 World Energy Outlook, the British daily newspaper The Guardian, referring to an unidentified senior IEA official, alleged that the agency was deliberately downplaying the risk of peak oil under pressures from the USA. According to a second unidentified former senior IEA official it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" and that the world has already entered the "peak oil zone".[12]

The Guardian also referred to a team of scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden who studied the 2008 World Energy Outlook and concluded the forecasts of the IEA were unattainable. According to their peer-reviewed report, oil production in 2030 would not exceed 75 million barrels per day (11.9×10^6 m3/d) while the IEA forecasts a production of 105 million barrels per day (16.7×10^6 m3/d). The lead author of the report, Dr. Kjell Aleklett, has claimed that IEA's reports are "political documents".[13]

The anticorruption NGO Global Witness wrote in its report Heads in the Sand that "Global Witness' analysis demonstrates that the Agency continues to retain an overly-optimistic, and therefore misleading, view about potential future oil production." According to Global Witness, "the Agency's over-confidence, despite credible data, external analysis and underlying fundamentals all strongly suggesting a more precautionary approach, has had a disastrous global impact."[14]

In the past, the IEA has been criticized by environmental groups for underplaying the role of renewable energy technologies in favor of nuclear and fossil-fuels.[15] In 2009, Guy Pearse stated that the IEA has consistently underestimated the potential for renewable energy alternatives.[16]

The Energy Watch Group (EWG), a coalition of scientists and politicians which analyses official energy industry predictions, claims that the IEA has had an institutional bias towards traditional energy sources and has been using "misleading data" to undermine the case for renewable energy, such as wind and solar. A 2008 EWG report compares IEA projections about the growth of wind power capacity and finds that it has consistently underestimated the amount of energy the wind power industry can deliver.[17]

For example, in 1998, the IEA predicted global wind electricity generation would total 47.4 GW by 2020, but EWG's report states that this level was reached by the end of 2004.[18] The report also said that the IEA has not learned the lesson of previous underestimates, and last year net additions of wind power globally were four times greater than the average IEA estimate from its 1995-2004 predictions.[17]

Amid discontent from across the renewables sector at the IEA's performance as a global energy watchdog, the International Renewable Energy Agency was formed on January 26, 2009. The aim is to have the agency fully operational by 2010 with an initial annual budget of €25m.[19]

Promotion of renewable energy

The IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS) is one of the collaborative R&D Agreements established within the IEA and, since its establishment in 1993, the PVPS participants have been conducting a variety of joint projects in the application of photovoltaic conversion of solar energy into electricity.

In 2011, IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said the current $409 billion equivalent of fossil fuel subsidies are encouraging a wasteful use of energy, and that the cuts in subsidies is the biggest policy item that would help renewable energies get more market share and reduce CO2 emissions.[20]

In November 2011, an IEA report entitled Deploying Renewables 2011 said "renewable energy technology is becoming increasingly cost competitive and growth rates are in line to meet levels required of a sustainable energy future". The report also said "subsidies in green energy technologies that were not yet competitive are justified in order to give an incentive to investing into technologies with clear environmental and energy security benefits". The renewable electricity sector has "grown rapidly in the past five years and now provides nearly 20 percent of the world's power generation", the IEA said.[15] The IEA's report disagreed with claims that renewable energy technologies are only viable through costly subsidies and not able to produce energy reliably to meet demand. "A portfolio of renewable energy technologies is becoming cost-competitive in an increasingly broad range of circumstances, in some cases providing investment opportunities without the need for specific economic support," the IEA said, and added that "cost reductions in critical technologies, such as wind and solar, are set to continue."[15]

In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that:

the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries’ energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared".[21]

For the first time in 2012, an annual medium-term report which analyses the renewable energy sector will be published by the IEA. This publication on renewable energy - "which is now the fastest growing sector of the energy mix and accounts for almost a fifth of all electricity produced worldwide - will join annual medium-term reports on oil, gas and coal, which the IEA already produces". With this report, "renewable energy takes its rightful seat at the table alongside the other major energy sources".[22]

Development and promotion of energy storage technologies

The IEA's Energy Conservation through Energy Conervation (ECES) Programme[23][24] has completed 20 developmental annexes covering seasonal thermal energy storage as sensible heat (or cold), as well as storage of latent heat and electrical energy.[25] Six other annexes are on-going[26] and three are in planning.[27]

The ECES programme has held triennial global energy conferences since 1981. The conferences originally focused exclusively on STES, but now that those technologies are mature and other kinds of energy storage technology are now also included. Since 1985 each conference has had "stock" (for storage) at the end of its name; e.g. Ecostock, Thermastock.[28] They are held at various locations around the world. Most recent was Innostock 2012 (the 12th International Conference on Thermal Energy Storage) in Lleida, Spain.[29] Greenstock 2015 will be held in Beijing.[30]

Carbon capture

IEA promotes reduction of CO2 emissions for both conventional fossil-fuel CCS and for bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) by working with member and partner nations on development of cost effective and efficient international and national energy policies including carbon capture and storage (CCS), trading mechanisms and clean low-carbon technologies. The 2012 IEA report entitled "A Policy Strategy for Carbon Capture and Storage" argues for comprehensive policy mechanisms that include setting a market price on CO2 emissions as key to reduction of CO2 emissions. "[I]n contrast to renewable energy or applications of energy efficiency, CCS generates no revenue, nor other market benefits, so long as there is no price on CO2 emissions. It is both costly to install and, once in place, has increased operating costs. Effective, well-designed policy support is essential in overcoming these barriers and the subsequent deployment of CCS technology."[31]

Energy efficiency

Main article: International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation

At the Heiligendamm Summit in June 2007, the G8 acknowledged an EU proposal for an international initiative on energy efficiency tabled in March 2007, and agreed to explore, together with the International Energy Agency, the most effective means to promote energy efficiency internationally. A year later, on 8 June 2008, the G8 countries, China, India, South Korea and the European Community decided to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, at the Energy Ministerial meeting hosted by Japan in the frame of the 2008 G8 Presidency, in Aomori.[32]

See also

Bibliography

  • Scott, Richard (1994). History of the IEA: The First 20 Years (PDF). Vol. Volume I: Origins and Structure. OECD/IEA. ISBN 92-64-14059-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-04-15. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

References

  1. ^ "IEA Energy Scenarios: Change We Have to Believe In". Allianz Knowledge. 2008-06-23. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  2. ^ "Environment". OECD/IEA. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  3. ^ "Former Dutch Minister Maria van der Hoeven Named Next Executive Director of the IEA to Start in September 2011" (Press release). International Energy Agency. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  4. ^ "New head for the IEA". Upstream Online. NHST Media Group. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  5. ^ "IEA Names Dutch Ex-minister Van Der Hoeven As Executive Director". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  6. ^ Scott (1994), pp.34–36
  7. ^ Scott (1994), pp.43–45
  8. ^ Scott (1994), pp.41–42
  9. ^ Scott (1994), p.20
  10. ^ McManus, Bryan (2011-06-23). "Libya unrest forces IEA oil draw down". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 2011-06-23.
  11. ^ http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_L_Estonie_invitee_a_devenir_le_29e_membre_de_l_AIE67201120131621.asp
  12. ^ Terry Macalister (2009-11-09). "Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
  13. ^ Terry Macalister (2009-11-12). "Oil: future world shortages are being drastically underplayed, say experts". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
  14. ^ "Heads in the Sand: Governments Ignore the Oil Supply Crunch and Threaten the Climate" (PDF). Global Witness. October 2009: 45–47. Retrieved 2011-02-19. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ a b c Henning Gloystein (Nov 23, 2011). "Renewable energy becoming cost competitive, IEA says". Reuters.
  16. ^ Guy Pearse (2009). "Quarry Vision", Quarterly Essay, Issue 33, p. 93.
  17. ^ a b IEA accused of "deliberately" undermining global renewables industry
  18. ^ Wind Power in Context – A clean Revolution in the Energy Sector p. 10.
  19. ^ International Renewable Energy Agency launches today
  20. ^ "Renewable Energy Being Held Back by Fossil Fuel Subsidies - IEA". Oilprice.com. 01 November 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Solar Energy Perspectives: Executive Summary". International Energy Agency. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-03.
  22. ^ The International Energy Agency (February 23, 2012). "IEA recognizes ascent of renewable energy market with new report".
  23. ^ IEA ECES Programme (2009). "Homepage".
  24. ^ Paksoy, S. (2013), International Energy Agency Energy Conservation through Energy Storage Programme since 1978 (PDF), IEA ECES
  25. ^ IEA-ECES website. Annexes: Completed Annexes [1]
  26. ^ IEA-ECES website. Annexes: On-going Annexes [2]
  27. ^ IEA-ECES website. Annexes: Planned Annexes [3]
  28. ^ Nordell, Bo; Gehlin, S. (2009), 30 years of thermal energy storage – a review of the IEA ECES stock conferences (PDF), IEA ECES
  29. ^ IEA ECES Programme (2012). "Innostock 2012 webpage".
  30. ^ IEA ECES Programme (2013), 2015 --13th ECES Conference Introduction
  31. ^ International Energy Agency (IEA) (2012). A Policy Strategy for Carbon Capture and Storage (PDF) (Report). Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  32. ^ Rapid - Press Releases - EUROPA
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