15 October 2009: The International Energy Agency (IEA) celebrated its 35th anniversary and considered the theme “Responding to Energy Challenges in Partnership” during its two-day Ministerial meeting in Paris, France, from 14-15 October 2009. The meeting gathered energy ministers from the 28 IEA member countries to share views on key energy and environment challenges. In addition, IEA partner countries China, India and Russia participated for the first time together and guest speakers Henry Kissinger and Etienne Davignon – two key founders of the IEA – and Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), helped mark the anniversary milestone.

Joint Statements were reached with each of the partner countries, outlining broader collaboration and activities with each on areas such as enhanced cooperation on energy security, energy efficiency, renewables, cleaner coal and technology collaboration. Ministers also agreed to organize an international partnership on energy and sustainability meeting between its members and partner countries, to be held in the second half of 2010, and to establish a training and capacity building programme, to provide for enhanced training opportunities with regard to energy data collection and analysis, energy efficiency, energy technology, energy markets and emergency preparedness.
During the Ministerial, the IEA also launched two new publications. The “IEA Scoreboard 2009: 35 Key Energy Trends over 35 Years” assesses member countries’ progress in achieving their broad shared energy policy goals. “Implementing Energy Efficiency Policies: Are IEA Member Countries on Track?” analyzes to what degree IEA member countries have implemented the Agency’s 25 energy efficiency recommendations, which could reduce worldwide CO2 emissions by 8.2 gigatonnes per year by 2030. A summary brochure of the first five “IEA technology roadmaps,” which focus on deployment of key energy technologies, was also released. [IEA press release] [IEA Scoreboard 2009: 35 Key Energy Trends over 35 Years] [Implementing Energy Efficiency Policies: Are IEA Member Countries on Track?] [IEA technology roadmaps]