Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan is to chair the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting in Paris this week, the Irish Minister to do so.
Minister Ryan said: “The meeting will look for a collective agreement on switching off one fuel and the provision of finance for the other. It has to achieve progress, we are in a perilous state in our world. IEA has 31 member countries and 13 association countries, which represent 75pc of the energy use in the world. It has actually become centre stage and much of the global efforts to switch away from the use of fossil fuel.
Our job next week is to take what was agreed in Dubai at the climate negotiations in November and December.
We have to stop looking for oil and gas because we’ve enough to burn the planet. We scaled up the spending to about $4.5tn a year on the clean alternative, mainly renewable and efficient. And of that, at least $1.5m has to go to the poorest countries, which is not happening at the moment.”
IEA is a multi-governmental agency, established in 1974 after the first oil crisis, and will host its ministerial meeting in Paris on February 13-14.
