IEA Focus On Clean Energy Gives US Officials Heartburn

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One thing is clear: Either you are in lockstep with the US pro-fossil fuel energy policy, or you are the enemy and will pay the price. Created in the 1970s after the OPEC oil embargoes, the International Energy Agency was designed to collect data on who was producing oil and how much in order to keep its members apprised of the status of energy supplies.

At the time of its creation, there was no such thing as renewable energy, and so the IEA of necessity limited its inquiries to oil and methane supplies. But over the past 10 years, renewables have have become the fastest growing segment in the energy sector, and so the agency adjusted its focus to report on wind and solar power as well.

Then, in 2020, the agency stopped reporting on oil and methane altogether and switched its focus to reporting primarily on renewables. The week, the government blowhard nominally in charge of the Energy Department took himself off to Paris to threaten and cajole the IEA to stop its support for renewables and revert to reporting on oil and methane production as originally intended.

Pay The Piper

Since the US is the primary source of funding for the IEA, it feels it has a right to dictate how the IEA operates, and there is some justification for that. In politics as in life, he who pays the piper gets to call the tune. But it is not the sole source of funds for the agency.

This week, Ed Miliband, the energy secretary for the UK government announced the UK would contribute a further 12 million pounds ($16 million) to the IEA’s Clean Energy Transitions Program. “The age of electricity is unstoppable,” he said, adding that for many countries, “clean energy is the most secure and affordable way to meet this rising demand over the long term.”

In Paris, Wright praised Birol for reinserting the section in its reports that analyzes the growth of oil and gas demand in its annual outlook last November. He said the IEA had “made some first steps” to reform but still has “a long way to go.” According to Barron’s, he told reporters, “The IEA has been infected with sort of a climate cult that’s about energy subtraction.”

“If it goes back to what it was — it was a fabulous international data recording agency, it was getting into critical minerals, was focused on big energy issues — we’re all in on that,” Wright said.  “But if they insist that it’s so dominated and infused with climate stuff — yes, then we’re out.”

Toeing The Party Line

Last summer, Republicans in Congress approved a bill that would withdraw funding for the IEA because the agency has departed from its mission to safeguard energy security and has been pushing green energy policies instead.

That action was in line with the position of the putative president that the theory that human activity has led to global warming is a hoax. Just last week, the US government arbitrarily repealed the so-called “endangerment finding” that is the basis for numerous policies designed to slow the advent of a hotter planet.

Wright used his time in Paris to challenge the consensus on climate science. “This belief that climate change is urgent, it’s causing catastrophic damage today, and we have to drop everything and focus everything on that — I can tell you nothing, nothing in the climate data supports that,” he said.

What an odd thing to say. Most CleanTechnica readers would challenge that statement as unadulterated horse puckey, but opposition to climate action is a form of religion for MAGAnistas, and anyone who varies from the script is liable to be excommunicated for their heresy.

The European Union’s climate monitor this week said the last three years have been the hottest globally on record, driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming. Other experts warn that rising global temperatures are bringing hotter summers, more frequent flooding, stronger storms, and increasingly devastating wildfires and droughts.

Fatih Birol Responds

Fatih Birol, the longtime head of the IEA, had a response for Wright’s protestations. “Being data driven doesn’t mean we don’t take sides. We take the side of secure energy. We take the side of affordable energy. We take the side of sustainable energy. We are a data driven organization. We are a non-political organization, but we are determined to lead the global energy journey towards the betterment of humanity,” he said.

Birol, who agrees that the agency’s core mandate is energy security, also outlined strategic priorities in the years ahead. Among them was the “uptake of new technologies,” which he said includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear power. “Countries are choosing these technologies,” he noted.

The IEA executive director concluded by noting the politically heated context within which his agency now operates. As the threat of a US exit looms, the IEA is expected to welcome four new members: Colombia, Brazil, India, and Vietnam.

Looking Forward

At the meeting in Paris this week, the IEA said Europe doesn’t have an innovation problem, it has a scale problem. It excels at research and pilot projects, but consistently fails to convert technological breakthroughs into large scale industrial deployment, the agency claims.

Europe’s real risk is not falling behind in ideas, but becoming a testing ground for technologies that are ultimately commercialized, produced, and monetized elsewhere. “Energy innovation has become a strategic priority for governments around the world,” said Birol. “With energy security and industrial competitiveness at the top of the agenda, countries that sustain investment in research, demonstration and early deployment will be best positioned to lead the next generation of energy technologies.”

The IEA identified more than 150 major innovative breakthroughs that are poised to slow the increase in average global temperatures, ranging from perovskite solar cells to fusion energy, sodium-ion batteries, and next-generation geothermal systems.

European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen said in a statement reported by Euro News that the clean energy transition is not a distant scenario but is happening now around the globe. “Between 2019 and 2024 the expansion of wind and solar generation in the EU is estimated to have avoided around €59 billion in fossil fuel import costs,” he said.

“For Europe, the clean energy transition is an industrial strategy. Renewables, electrification, and modern grids are not costs to manage but strategic assets that help us lower prices and protect our consumers from energy supply shocks,” he said.