Executive Director meets with Indian Prime Minister Modi on energy issues and G20

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol met this week with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India for a wide-ranging discussion on energy policy issues – including renewables, hydrogen and clean energy supply chains – and India’s Presidency of the G20 this year.

The bilateral meeting took place Monday in Bengaluru, India, on the occasion of India Energy Week, which was opened by Prime Minister Modi and India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri. Dr Birol took part in the Prime Minister’s roundtable discussion with leaders from international energy companies, where he highlighted India’s leadership on energy access, energy efficiency and renewables – and its opportunities in the new global energy economy that is emerging.

During the subsequent bilateral meeting, Dr Birol presented the Prime Minister with a copy of the IEA’s new report on the potential global benefits of India’s Lifestyle for Environment initiative and outlined the main findings. The Prime Minister invited the IEA to work further on this topic with the Government of India.

A day earlier, Dr Birol met with India’s Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh for a discussion that covered developments in the global energy crisis, diversification of clean energy supply chains, India’s leadership on energy transitions, and the agenda for its G20 Presidency.

On Tuesday, Dr Birol spoke at the 9th Asian Ministers Energy Roundtable, which was hosted by Minister Puri. In his remarks, Dr Birol highlighted the opportunity to direct the recent windfall profits of international and national oil and gas companies towards investment in clean energy, especially in emerging economies, and in expanding access to clean cooking. Later that day, he and Minister Puri signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding between the IEA and the Indian Ministry of Petroleum’s data agency, PPAC. This was followed by a bilateral meeting to discuss oil markets, the potential for biofuels and EVs to reduce oil demand, and priorities for India’s G20 Presidency.

While in Bengaluru, Dr Birol also had bilateral meetings with a range of other senior figures from government and industry, including COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates; Vice Chairman Suman Bery of NITI Aayog, the Indian government think tank; Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa; Portugal’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ana Fontoura Gouveia; Lin Shanqing, Vice Administrator of China’s National Energy Agency; Gurdeep Singh, the Chairman and Managing Director of Indian utility NTPC; and Sumant Sinha, the CEO of ReNew Power.