With Brazil, the IEA member association now accounts for over 70% of the world’s total energy consumption, compared with less than 40% just two years ago. The seven IEA Association countries are Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Singapore and Thailand.
New Delhi: The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced Brazil has joined the agency as an Association country and that the development opens up new avenues for cooperation towards a more secure and sustainable energy future with Latin America’s largest country.
With Brazil, the IEA member association now accounts for over 70% of the world’s total energy consumption, compared with less than 40% just two years ago. The seven IEA Association countries are Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Singapore and Thailand.
The announcement was made in Brasilia by Fernando Coelho Filho, Minister of Mines and Energy; Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, Foreign Minister; and Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director. Birol and Minister Coelho also signed a detailed three-year work programme highlighting a range of issues of mutual interest and cooperation.
“With today’s announcement of IEA Association, we are taking another important step to place Brazil at the centre of global debate on key energy policy issues including renewable energy, energy efficiency, rational use of fossil fuels, energy security and sustainable development,” said Coelho.
Brazil’s leading expertise in bioenergy, hydro and other forms of clean and conventional energy is recognized around the world, and provides an excellent basis to develop solutions for global energy challenges, IEA said in a statement. It added the country’s experience in managing renewable resources in its energy mix can contribute to IEA discussions on a broadened concept of energy security and that Brazil has also pioneered the use of auctions for long-term contracts for renewable energy, a model that is now successfully applied as best-practice world-wide.
Brazil and the IEA plan to work jointly across a wide range of energy-related activities. These include implemention of The Biofuture Platform, which aims to promote international coordination on advanced low carbon fuels. The IEA will also support the development of Brazil’s ten-year energy efficiency plan and co-host an energy efficiency training event in Brazil to share regional and global experiences.
“Brazil’s experience shows that policies do matter,” said Birol. “Its determined and ambitious long-term energy policies, developing deep-water oil resources and expanding biofuels output, set an example to countries around the world. As a result, our latest data shows that Brazil will become a net oil exporter this year, the first major consumer in recent history to ever achieve such a turnaround.”
Birol also congratulated Brazil for its recent successful deepwater bid round. After depending on oil imports since IEA records began in the 1970s, the IEA now finds that Brazil will become a net exporter this year, and exporting nearly one million barrels of oil per day to world markets by 2022. This is the result of a 50% increase in oil production in the past decade thanks to a successful push into deep-water production, and a biofuels programme that has helped keep domestic oil-demand growth under control.
The association countries can work with the IEA on critical issues, including energy security, data and statistics, and energy policy solutions. This institutional partnership also enables countries to participate across the range of IEA work, including its committees and training and capacity-building activities.
The comprehensive three-year work programme signed by Birol and Minister Coelho also includes sharing best-practices on grid integration, gas market design, and close co-operation on clean-energy initiatives, including through the G20 and the Clean Energy Ministerial. The agreement will allow IEA to benefit from Brazil’s experience of developing one of the cleanest energy mixes in the world.
Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes
