IEA calls for more cooperation with emerging economies

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for more cooperation between the organisation and emerging economies not part of IEA as the latter has become ever more important to global energy demand.

"The world has changed dramatically since the founding of the IEA, driving us to evolve and to develop our capability accordingly," said Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA at the opening of an annual energy meeting held by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Monday.

"Demand pattern has shifted. The IEA members once accounted for around three quarters of global demand and now account for less than a half. This requires that we engage more closely with emerging economies like China and India, increasingly the engine of the global demand," van der Hoeven said.

To strengthen such cooperation, van der Hoeven said the IEA was "exploring the social membership for several of these countries," which was "a shared value and interest here in Washington", Xinhua reported.

The IEA was founded in 1974 aiming to prevent industrial countries from suffering again the oil crisis that happened in the early 1970s. In 2014, Estonia joined the IEA to become its 29th member state.