Trump Wants the IEA to Refocus on Fossil Fuels and Energy Security

If Donald Trump wins the presidential election, he is expected to push the International Energy Agency (IEA), for which the United States provides about a quarter of the funding, back to energy security and fossil fuel supply, Reuters reported on Thursday, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.    [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

The Paris-based IEA was created to ensure the security of supply to developed economies in the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s.

In recent years, however, the agency has shifted from this purpose to endorsing the net-zero by 2050 goal and is advocating for a major change in the global energy system to include more electric vehicles (EVs), renewable power supply, hydrogen, and all other low-carbon energy sources. The IEA has even infamously said that no new oil and gas developments would be needed if the world stands a chance of reaching net zero by 2050.

But Trump, if elected U.S. president in November, is likely to pressure the IEA to pivot back to maximizing fossil fuel supply, according to former Trump Administration officials and people familiar with Trump’s thinking on energy who spoke to Reuters.

Trump has not expressed any views regarding the IEA in public, while his campaign declined to comment on the report for Reuters.

According to Reuters’s sources, Trump would seek to replace the current executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol.

The IEA is currently focused on pushing the net zero and clean energy transition agenda. It has also started to diverge significantly in its oil demand growth forecasts from the OPEC group.

Just this week, the IEA cut its growth forecast for 2024 by 140,000 bpd from its assessment last month, and now sees global oil demand growth at 1.1 million bpd.

With the latest downward revision to oil demand growth, the IEA is further widening the gap in projections with OPEC. The agency sees half the growth, at 1.1 million bpd, compared to OPEC’s continued optimistic view of 2.25-million-bpd global oil demand growth this year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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