Executive Director addresses ministers on energy, climate and development challenges at high-level G20 events in India

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol addressed government ministers and other leading figures in India this week on the interlinked issues of energy, climate and development at a series of high-level events hosted under India’s G20 Presidency.

In Varanasi on Monday, Dr Birol participated in the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting, chaired by India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar. In his opening remarks to ministers from around the world, Dr Jaishankar highlighted the important analysis developed by the IEA on India’s Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative, which was published earlier this year. The IEA is carrying out ongoing analysis on LiFE and its global implications at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.

Dr Birol provided a keynote speech to ministers on how to accelerate sustainable economic development and a clean energy transition that provides access to modern energy services for all. He called for an ambitious agenda from the G20 on clean energy investment and greater efforts to enable international financial institutions to play their part through mobilising public and private capital. 

In Delhi on Wednesday, Dr Birol gave a keynote address at a special event – co-hosted by India’s G20 Secretariat and the IEA – focused on India’s role and priorities in the energy transition, including issues such as security of supply, deployment of renewable technologies and developing “fuels of the future”. He spoke alongside India's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri and India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, as well as the CEOs of Tata Power and Standard Chartered Bank India. Dr Birol highlighted India’s impressive progress on its energy transition and the importance of its G20 leadership at a time of shifting energy and geopolitical landscapes.

Over the course of his time in India, Dr Birol held bilateral meetings with a range of senior figures, including Minister Puri, Mr Kant and India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal. He also met with Canada's Minister for International Development Harjit Sajjan; Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shunsuke Takei; the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Secretary for Economic and Financial Affairs Mauricio Lyrio, who also serves as Brazil’s G20 Sherpa; Vice Chairman Suman Bery of NITI Aayog, the Indian government think tank and USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman.