The International Energy Agency today held the largest ever meeting of the IEA Energy Business Council, the overarching body through which the Agency interacts with the private sector, to discuss a wide range of issues related to energy security and clean energy transitions.
The aim of the Energy Business Council (EBC) is to promote dialogue among the IEA, the business community and policy makers on a broad range of cross-cutting issues that have implications for the global energy system. The IEA has a long-standing dialogue with the private sector in order to exchange data, information and expertise on key relevant topics and to help inform IEA analysis and recommendations.
The EBC meeting today was the largest ever convened. It was attended by over 100 executives from around 80 leading global companies, spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. The companies are involved in a wide range of activities, including renewables, information technologies, car manufacturing, oil and gas, financial services, utilities, and energy intensive industries.
The meeting was opened and chaired by IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, who said: "In this extraordinary time for the global energy sector - a period of great change, high uncertainties and complex challenges - an open and robust dialogue between the energy industry and policy makers is more important than ever. As the global energy authority, the IEA is an essential part of that dialogue, and I'm delighted that so many business leaders from around the world are with us today to dig into a range of critical issues. We look forward to sharing our analysis and perspectives - and most of all, listening to the insights from companies that are at the heart of the energy sector."
Dr Birol outlined key energy and geopolitical trends and highlighted the IEA's priorities and plans for the rest of this year and beyond. His introduction was followed by four main sessions.
In the session on global energy markets, IEA experts provided an overview on recent developments across oil, gas and renewables, drawing on the Agency's latest analysis. For oil and gas, participants discussed areas including supply-demand balances; the factors and uncertainties related to future demand trajectories for oil and gas; the roles that oil producers and companies can play in the clean energy transition; and how importing and exporting countries further strengthen cooperation.
The discussion on renewables covered issues such as wind and solar PV deployment rates and potential challenges; the key areas that governments and industry need to focus on to meet the COP28 goal of trebling global renewable power capacity by 2030; and what policies and business models are needed to support the use of renewables outside of the electricity sector.
The next session focused on financing clean energy investment in emerging and developing economies, including actions to mitigate real and perceived risks and lower the cost of capital. Participants discussed how approaches that have succeeded in certain markets could be replicated and modified for other regions or sectors.
The third session assessed the outlook for critical minerals and clean technology manufacturing. Participants discussed the implications of recent declines in the prices of key minerals on clean energy deployment and future investment; which minerals are most exposed to supply, geopolitical and environmental risks; and what the major barriers and risks are for the further development of clean technology manufacturing.
The final session was about the intersection of energy and artificial intelligence, an expanding area of work for the IEA, which will hold a Global Conference on Energy and AI on 5 December 2024. During the session, participants considered how data centres and artificial intelligence will affect electricity demand trends; what the most promising applications of AI for the energy sector; and what policies are needed to support the sustainable deployment of AI in the energy and climate domain.
