US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the International Energy Agency should focus on energy security and abandon net zero ideas, but EU leaders have backed the Paris-based agency as a "trusted pillar" of the global energy community.
The United States would consider dropping out of the International Energy Agency (IEA) if it continues to pursue a climate agenda of reaching emissions neutrality by 2050, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a panel on the sidelines of the IEA's ministerial meeting on Thursday.
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“We're definitely not satisfied (with current IEA's policy scenarios), and we’re not there yet… For the US to remain a long-term member of the IEA, the agency needs to finish the reform... we don’t need a net zero scenario, that’s never gonna happen, net zero by 2050,” Wright said.
The US energy chief's comments came a few days after Washington repealed its foundational federal climate regulation exempting automakers from costly tailpipe emissions standards, another step in the ongoing dismantling of environmental laws under the Trump administration.
Yet contrary to US President Donald Trump's repeated declarations that climate change is a "con job", Wright said the "real physical phenomenon" has been "wildly misunderstood and exaggerated for political reasons".
"We’ve gotten off track on energy ... it has gotten so ridiculously out of whack that it has driven deindustrialisation and made our countries geopolitically weaker," said Wright, noting a massive investment of $10 trillion on wind, solar, batteries and transmission lines that only delivered 2.6% of global energy.
Wright said the world doesn't need "another climate advocacy organisation" suggesting the Paris-based IEA should instead focus on its original mission, centered on energy security.
“If the IEA goes back to what it was, which was a fabulous international data reporting agency, getting into critical minerals and focusing on big energy issues, we’re all in on that. But if they insist that it’s so dominated and infused with climate stuff we’re out,” Wright said.
He suggested that several data reporting agencies "distort" their findings, adding that the world has "plenty of climate advocacy organisations".
Dodging specific questions about whether the agency will abandon net-zero scenarios, the IEA's Executive Director Fatih Birol instead mentioned the interest from countries like Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam and India to join the Paris-based agency.
"This is a milestone in the IEA's governance amid a global political system that faces a lot of challenges around the world," Birol told a press conference on Thursday.
Europe backs IEA's work
British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that while it's up to the US to decide on its future relationship with the IEA, he nonetheless "hopes they stay".
“I'm very happy with the work that the IEA is doing. I think that they are an organisation that proceeds on the basis of the facts, the science and the data," Miliband said. "I know that they were committed to carrying on doing that, and I know that's what the members want them to keep doing.”
Several European ministers attending the closed-door session on Thursday backed the agency's work, according to a source close to the talks.
"It also allows us to do something fundamental: move away from one of the greatest risks of our time, which is disinformation. Therefore, we need more than ever to continue following the rigorous and analytical work that the agency provides," a European energy minister said, according to the source.
European Union Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, who also attended the ministerial meeting in Paris, hailed the IEA as a "trusted pillar of the global energy community, delivering reliable data, rigorous analysis, policy guidance and steady leadership".
"It is proof that multilateralism works. In a time of mounting energy crises and complex global challenges, we need more of this, not less," said Jørgensen.
"We stand firmly behind the IEA’s mission and its vital role in guiding the world toward a secure, sustainable, and prosperous energy future."
The IEA was established after the 1973-1974 oil crisis to serve as an independent body to coordinate joint responses to major disruptions in oil supply.