Minister Eamon Ryan elected as Co-Chair of International Energy Agency in 2024

Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, has been elected as lead co-chair of the International Energy Agency (IEA) for 2024, marking the agency’s 50th anniversary.

Founded in 1974, the IEA is an inter-governmental organisation providing policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector to its 31 member countries and 11 association countries, including the USA, China and India. Its membership represents 75% of global energy demand.

French Minister for Energy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, was elected as co-chair along with Minister Ryan. Ministers from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Poland were elected as vice-chairs.

Minister Ryan’s election is based on his two terms as Ireland’s Energy Minister and his internationally acknowledged expertise in renewable energy and climate change.  The IEA recognises that climate action is intrinsically linked with the shift away from polluting fossil fuels to clean and sustainable renewables. 

He is a frequent and leading voice at European Councils on Energy, Environment and Transport. Last year, he was appointed as the lead EU negotiator on key talks at COP27 in Sharm-El-Sheikh which delivered an historic breakthrough on loss and damage financing. He also served as co-chair of the European Councils’ North Seas Energy Co-operation (NSEC) throughout 2022 and was instrumental in bringing the UK back into the 10 member-state organisation, which supports and facilitates the development of Europe’s huge offshore grid and renewable energy potential. 

Representing Ireland, Minister Ryan’s election means he will co-chair the next IEA Ministerial Meeting in February 2024, which will be a particularly critical as it will follow COP 28 and will mark the conclusion of the first “Global Stocktake” of the world’s collective progress against its climate goals since the Paris Agreement. 

The role of co-chair spans over a year, with critical work and meetings in advance of the Ministerial and afterwards. The previous chair of the IEA Ministerial was US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The election of the co-chair and vice-chair positions were endorsed by the IEA’s Governing Board today in Paris.