IEA Calls for "Considerable Changes" to Attain Sustainable Energy Growth

The world needs to adopt new policies and change old habits, if it is to pursue a sustainable energy path, Member countries of the International Energy Agency declared in a statement issued today. The three-page "Statement on Sustainable Development" is the result of several months of study and discussion by the Agency’s Secretariat and its 25 Member states. It addresses one of the key areas covered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its wide-ranging study of sustainable development in the new Millennium.

The IEA statement points out that energy plays a key role in all three major aspects of sustainable development: the economy, the environment and social welfare. It stresses that access to modern energy services is indispensable to economic and social development. At the same time, it points to the need to limit environmental and climate problems, as well as the challenges to energy supply security, which could result from continued rapid expansion of fossil-fuel demand and use.

The statement concludes with a list of nine policy recommendations to help the energy sectors of its Members’ economies "make the fullest possible contribution to sustainable development".