International Energy Agency
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International Energy Agency (IEA)
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 IEA member states
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| Secretariat | Paris, France | |||
| Membership | 28 member states | |||
| Leaders | ||||
| - | Executive Director |  Nobuo Tanaka |
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| - | Deputy Executive Director |  Richard Jones |
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| - | Chief-Economist |  Fatih Birol |
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| Establishment | ||||
| - | Established | 1974 | ||
| Website www.iea.org |
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The International Energy Agency (IEA, or AIE in Romance languages) 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 sound 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 4.3 billion barrels of oil.
The Executive Director of the IEA is Nobuo Tanaka. The Deputy Executive Director is Ambassador Richard Jones.
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[edit] Intervention history
- In 1991 Gulf War.
- In 2005 the IEA released two million barrels a day for a month after Hurricane Katrina affected USA production.
- On August 29, 2008 the IEA announced that if Hurricane Gustav caused major damage to gulf oil and gas equipment, strategic reserves would be released. [1]
[edit] Member states
Only the OECD member states can become members of the IEA. Also, All OECD member states are members of the IEA, excluding Iceland, Mexico and Chile. There are 28 member states.
| Current membership: | |
[edit] Energy efficiency
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.[3]
[edit] Renewable energy
Guy Pearse states that the IEA has consistently underestimated the potential for renewable energy alternatives.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[5]
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.[7]
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.
[edit] Criticism
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.[8]
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 (11.9×106 m3/d) while the IEA forecasts a production of 105 million barrels per day (16.7×106 m3/d). The lead author of the report, Dr. Kjell Aleklett, has claimed that IEA's reports are "political documents".[9]
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."[10]
[edit] See also
- SolarPACES
- IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme
- IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Implementing Agreement - Task 13 (Solar Low Energy Buildings)
- IEA-ECBCS Annex 48 : Heat Pumping and Reversible Air Conditioning
- IEA Bioenergy Task 40
- International Renewable Energy Agency
- One Watt Initiative
- Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
- Renewable Energy Policy Network(REN21)
- Nuclear Energy Agency
- International Atomic Energy Agency
[edit] References
- ^ "IEA Energy Scenarios: Change We Have to Believe In". Allianz Knowledge. 2008-06-23. http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/climate_change/climate_solutions/iea_gielen_climate_energy_technology_perspectives.html. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ^ "Environment". OECD/IEA. http://www.iea.org/Textbase/subjectqueries/keyresult.asp?KEYWORD_ID=4139. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
- ^ Rapid - Press Releases - EUROPA
- ^ Guy Pearse (2009). "Quarry Vision", Quarterly Essay, Issue 33, p. 93.
- ^ a b IEA accused of "deliberately" undermining global renewables industry
- ^ Wind Power in Context – A clean Revolution in the Energy Sector p. 10.
- ^ International Renewable Energy Agency launches today
- ^ Terry Macalister (2009-11-09). "Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
- ^ Terry Macalister (2009-11-12). "Oil: future world shortages are being drastically underplayed, say experts". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/12/oil-shortage-uppsala-aleklett. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
- ^ (PDF) Heads in the Sand: Governments Ignore the Oil Supply Crunch and Threaten the Climate. Global Witness. October 2009. pp. 45–47. http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_get.php/1084/1264242625/heads_in_the_sand_print.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
[edit] External links
- International Energy Agency
- IEA- Annex 18
- Decision establishing an International Energy Agency
- World Energy Outlook
- IEA's Database of Energy Efficiency Policies and Measures
- IEA's Database of Climate Change Policies and Measures
- IEA Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme (ECBCS)
