IEA’s Ministerial Meeting Was Its Most Consequential

The International Energy Agency (IEA) held its biennial meeting of energy ministers in Paris last week. Usually, this is a worthy occasion with little accompanying controversy. This time, it was very different. The event was the biggest in the Agency’s history reflecting the growth in its membership in the past decade and the increased scope of its work. The most attention-grabbing aspect of the event was the continued insistence by the U.S. that the IEA change course away from a bias towards advocating climate change policies and particularly from research highlighting the net zero agenda. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has demanded a focus on what we at the National Center for Energy Analytics call “energy realism.” He has gone as far as to say publicly and loudly at the IEA ministerial meeting – with Executive Director Fatih Birol sitting next to him - that if the U.S. is not happy with the IEA’s work, then it will pull out of the organization.