Zürcher Nachrichten - US energy chief says IEA must 'drop' focus on climate change

Wright threatened last year to pull the United States out of the IEA -- which was founded to coordinate responses to major disruptions of supplies after the 1973 oil crisis -- unless it reformed the way it operates.

The IEA was created "to focus on energy security", Wright said on Wednesday at a ministerial meeting of the agency in Paris.

"That mission is beyond critical and I'm here to plead to all the members (of the IEA) that we need to keep the focus of the IEA on this absolutely life-changing, world-changing mission of energy security," the former fracking magnate said.

He said he wanted to get support from "all the nations in this noble organisation to work with us, to push the IEA to drop the climate. That's political stuff".

Speaking earlier, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol insisted that the Paris-based agency was "data-driven".

"We are a nonpolitical organisation," he added.

The IEA produces monthly reports on oil demand and supply as well as annual world energy outlooks that include data on the growth of solar and wind energy, among other analyses.

Wright praised Birol for reinserting a scenario that looked at the growth of oil and gas demand -- which had been dropped from the reports in 2020 -- in last November's annual outlook.

In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Wright said the IEA has "made some first steps" to reform but still has "a long way to go".

But the US energy chief also pressed on with his criticism, telling reporters before the start of Wednesday's meetings: "The IEA has been infected with sort of a climate cult that's about energy subtraction."

- 'Age of electricity unstoppable' -

President Donald Trump, who has called human-driven global warming a hoax, has pulled the United States out of the United Nations' bedrock climate treaty and, last week, dismantled the legal basis for US climate rules.

Wright has 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.

The European Union's climate monitor, however, says the last three years have been the hottest globally on record, driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.

Experts warn that rising global temperatures are bringing hotter summers, more frequent flooding, stronger storms and increasingly devastating wildfires and droughts.

In a sign that not all nations agree with Wright, British energy secretary Ed Miliband announced that the UK would contribute a further 12 million pounds ($16 million) to the IEA's Clean Energy Transitions Programme.

"The age of electricity is unstoppable," Miliband said.

For many countries, he added, "clean energy is the most secure and affordable way to meet this rising demand over the long term."

He praised the IEA and Birol, saying: "You treat all members equally and fairly."

L.Rossi--NZN