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China, Indonesia become IEA association countries

China and Indonesia, two energy giants in the world, were declared by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as its association countries at the 2015 Ministerial meeting held in Paris, France on November 18.

Mexico is seeking to join the IEA, it said.

The "association country" is a new definition introduced by the IEA, which adds to the tradition division of "member country" and "non-member country".

To be a "member country" of the IEA, a country must meet a variety of conditions, i.e. it must be a member country of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); it must has a strategy oil reserve of 90 days’ coverage, etc. Currently, the IEA has 29 member countries including the US, Japan, etc.

As association countries like China and Indonesia, they don’t need to be qualified for these conditions. But meanwhile, they may have a greater say in international energy landscape.

The center of the world’s energy demand is increasingly diverting to emerging economies, many of which are not members of the OECD. So the IEA has the intention to absorb more of these new economies with great energy demand into itself.

"Under the scenario of international energy transformation, the IEA will need three pillars in its modernization, with the key pillar being opening a door to emerging economies," said Fatih Birol, the head of the IEA at the conference.

By 2035, the world’s energy consumption is likely to grow 37% from now, over half of which will come from India and China, predicted BP in An Outlook for World Energy in 2035 it publicized earlier this year.

In 2014, the world’s primary energy consumption amounted to 12.9 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, up 1.6% on year, according to BP.

 source: http://en.sxcoal.com