REF SOURCE: https://www.iea.

org/about/history

History
From oil security to steering the world toward secure and sustainable energy transitions

Signature of the Agreement Establishing the IEA, 18 November 1974. Left to right: Ulf
Lantzke, Special Counsellor for Energy to the OECD Secretary-General; Etienne
Davignon, Belgian Foreign Ministry, Chairman of the IEA-OECD Governing Board; Emile
Van Len

Created in 1974 to ensure the security of oil supplies, the International Energy Agency has
evolved over the years. While energy security remains a core mission, the IEA today is at
the center of the global energy debate, focusing on a wide variety of issues, ranging from
electricity security to investments, climate change and air pollution, energy access and
efficiency, and much more.

Creation
The IEA was born with the 1973-1974 oil crisis, when industrialised countries found they
were not adequately equipped to deal with the oil embargo imposed by major producers that
pushed prices to historically high levels.

1
This first oil shock led to the creation of the IEA in November 1974 with a broad mandate
on energy security and energy policy co-operation. This included setting up a collective
action mechanism to respond effectively to potential disruptions in oil supply. The
framework was anchored in the IEA treaty called the “Agreement on an International
Energy Program,” with newly created autonomous Agency hosted at the OECD in Paris.

The IEA was established as the main international forum for energy co-operation on a
variety of issues such as security of supply, long-term policy, information transparency,
energy efficiency, sustainability, research and development, technology collaboration, and
international energy relations.

The IEA’s founding members were Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway (under a special Agreement), Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. They were followed
by Greece (1976), New Zealand (1977), Australia (1979), Portugal (1981), Finland (1992),
France (1992), Hungary (1997), Czech Republic (2001), Republic of Korea (2002), Slovak
Republic (2007), Poland (2008), Estonia (2014), and Mexico (2018).

The IEA’s collective emergency response system mechanism ensures a stabilizing influence
on markets and the global economy. It was activated three times since the Agency’s
creation. The first was in January 1991, during the First Gulf War. The second was in 2005,
after the hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. The
third was in 2011, during the Libyan crisis.

Modernization strategy
While energy security remains a core mission, the IEA has evolved over the years, adapting
to the transformation of the global energy system. Today, the IEA is at the heart of global
dialogue on energy, providing authoritative statistics and analysis and examining the full
spectrum of energy issues, advocating policies that will enhance the reliability, affordability
and sustainability of energy in its 30 members countries and beyond.

In 2015, the IEA’s Ministerial Meeting approved a new modernization strategy presented by
the Agency’s newly appointed Executive Director, Dr Fatih Birol, to strengthen the
Agency’s role as an authoritative voice on global energy policy. Ministers the focus on
creating a more inclusive and truly global agency through closer engagement with emerging
energy economies.

The modernization of the IEA was structured under three pillars: strengthening and
broadening the IEA’s commitment to energy security beyond oil, to natural gas and

2
electricity; deepening the IEA’s engagement with major emerging economies; and
providing a greater focus on clean energy technology, including energy efficiency.

 Ministerial 2015 - Chair's Summary

The Agency’s successful “open door” policy allowed the IEA to deepen its collaboration
with eight new countries through the Association progamme: Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, Morocco, Thailand, Singapore, and South Africa. The IEA family now represents
about 75% of global energy consumption, up from 40% in 2015.

Past and present leadership

The IEA has had seven Executive Directors since its creation: Ulf Lantzke, Germany (1975-
1984); Helga Steeg, Germany (1984-1994); Robert Priddle, United Kingdom (1994-2003);
Claude Mandil, France (2003-2007); Nobuo Tanaka, Japan (2007-2011); Maria van der
Hoeven, Netherlands (2011-2015); and Dr Fatih Birol, Turkey (since 2015).