12 January 2010: Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and Richard Baron, Head of the IEA’s Climate Change Unit, discussed the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference on 12 January 2010, offering presentations on “The Copenhagen Accord and the IEA” and “The Outcome of Copenhagen – an IEA perspective,” respectively.
Tanaka’s presentation covered the IEA’s work leading up to and during the Copenhagen Conference, including the publication of Technology Roadmaps and of the World Energy Outlook, as well as participation in the UNFCCC’s Expert Group on Technology Transfer.
Baron’s talk provided an overview of the main elements of the Copenhagen Accord and its implications for the energy sector. He highlighted that, although the energy sector was not treated explicitly in the Accord, nearly all of its aims have important consequences for energy. He explained that the targeted 2°C limit to global temperature rise will have dramatic energy sector implications in terms of use and need for new technology, and that monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions reductions will require extensive usage of precise energy statistics. [The Presentations]