India And The IEA: Friends With Benefits?

Expanding the global energy body membership to include India is crucial for ensuring global energy security

- Kauskik Deb

The International Energy Agency (IEA) agreeing to start discussions with India on joining the organisation as a full member is a significant and positive step for both parties. India had formally sent a request for full membership last October and the 31 member countries at the IEA's 50th Anniversary events earlier in February announced that negotiations will now begin. This would be the first country outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) club to get full membership of the IEA, reflecting the increasingly larger share of non-OECD countries in global energy consumption since 2007.

Given that much of the growth in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions will come from India in the foreseeable future, it is important for the IEA to engage more closely with such an emerging economy. However, despite apparent synergies in their worldviews on several issues in India's energy sector policies, there are important differences in their approach to economic development and energy transition. Hence, for a successful partnership, both parties need to agree where they can, and perhaps disagree where necessary. That will make for an interesting negotiation process.

The IEA was set up half a century ago to support and promote the energy security of oil-importing countries in response to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. At that time, the largest oil importers were in the OECD, and hence IEA membership was limited to OECD countries. That does not reflect the reality of the world today. The largest energy importers, and not just oil, are in non-OECD developing countries in Asia. The stability of global energy markets crucially depends on how these countries attempt to secure their energy systems. Hence, expanding the IEA membership to include India is a crucial step in that direction.