India invited to become IEA member "EMPOWER IAS"

International Energy Agency (IEA) has invited India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer, to become its full-time member.

International Energy Agency (IEA)

• The IEA is an 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.
• Based in Paris, 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.
• In the decades since, its role has expanded to cover the entire global energy system, encompassing traditional energy sources such as oil, gas, and coal as well as cleaner and faster growing ones such as solar PV, wind power and biofuels.
• It is best known for the publication of its annual World Energy Outlook.

Role and responsibility

• The Agency’s mandate has broadened to focus on providing analysis, data, policy recommendations and solutions to help countries ensure secure, affordable and sustainable energy for all.
• In particular, it has focused on supporting global efforts to accelerate the clean energy transition and mitigate climate change.
• The IEA has a broad role in promoting rational energy policies and multinational energy technology co-operation with a view to reaching net zero emissions.

India and IEA

• India, in March 2017, became an associate member of the Paris-based body which advises industrialised nations on energy policies.
• Today the IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, as well as major emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa to support energy security and advance the clean energy transition worldwide.

Significance of the invitation

• This proposal if accepted will require New Delhi to raise strategic oil reserves to 90 days requirement.
• India is becoming increasingly influential in global energy trends.

 

 

Criteria for Membership

A candidate country to the IEA must be a member country of the OECD. In addition, it must demonstrate several requirements. These are:

• Crude oil and/or product reserves equivalent to 90 days of the previous year's net imports, to which the government has immediate access (even if it does not own them directly) and could be used to address disruptions to global oil supply:
• A demand restraint programme,to reduce national oil consumption by up to 10%;
• Legislation and organisation to operate the Coordinated Emergency Response Measures (CERM) on a national basis;
• Legislation and measures to ensure that all oil companies under its jurisdiction report information upon request;
• Measures in place to ensure the capability of contributing its share of an IEA collective action. 
• An IA collective action would be initiated in response to a significant global oil supply disruption and would involve IEA Member Countries making additional volumes of crude and/or product available to the global market (either through increasing supply or reducing demand), with each country's share based on national consumption as part of the IEA total oil consumption.