Sixty-five signatories urge International Energy Agency to do more to avert ‘catastrophic global warming’International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol. Picture:REUTERS/BENOIT TESSIERFatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency , faced renewed pressure on Monday to overhaul the organisation’s influential projections for fossil fuel demand from investors and scientists concerned about climate change.
The missive represented the first co-ordinated response by investors, scientists and campaigners pushing Birol to rethink the Paris-based organisation’s flagship annual outlook since the latest edition was launched on November 13. These critics argue that a revised approach could help unlock faster investment in renewables and better identify possible risks to the value of oil, gas and coal companies posed by the prospect of rapid action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Birol also emphasised that the IEA’s wide-ranging work on topics from energy efficiency to offshore wind play an important role in boosting international efforts to tackle climate change. The signatories want their vision for what would qualify as such a scenario to be the centrepiece of the next outlook.