IEA Executive Director on Official Visit to China

BEIJING/GUIYANG – Dr Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) was in China from 7-9 July for talks with Chinese ministers on opportunities to broaden and deepen collaboration to bolster energy security, improve air quality and reduce carbon intensity.

Dr Birol met with Mr Nur Bekri, Administrator of the National Energy Administration (NEA), at the State Guesthouse. They reviewed progress on the IEA-China 3-year work, which includes cooperation on energy security, energy efficiency, data and statistics, as well as policy analysis and recommendations to support China’s energy transition towards a cleaner pathway, and discussed priority areas to build on this collaboration in the future.

The meeting with Minister Nur Bekri capped a series of talks with high level government leaders. Dr Birol met bilaterally with Mr Zhang Yong, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), to discuss plans to deepen cooperation between the IEA and NDRC on energy efficiency. He also met with Mr Liu Hua, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Environment, to sign an MoU that will see the IEA and China cooperating on issues related to climate change, environmental protection, sustainable development, energy security, and air pollution. Dr Birol also met with Mr Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative on Climate Change Affairs, to discuss cooperation on China’s clean energy transition.

Dr Fatih Birol and Mr Liu Hua, Deputy Minister of Ecology and EnvironmentDr Fatih Birol meets with Mr Nur Bekri, Administrator of the National Energy Administration

As part of the visit to China, Dr Birol delivered the keynote address at the ECO Forum Global Annual Conference in Guiyang. The conference was inaugurated by China’s Vice Premier, Ms Sun Chunlan, and brought together more than 20,000 government officials, representatives from industry, and academia, to break barriers between sectors and regions, and build a platform for exchange and cooperation to accelerate the development of green industry projects. Dr Birol also provided opening remarks to the Green Industry Development 100 Forum, where he announced the online release of the Chinese language version of the World Energy Outlook Special Report on China.