IEA Contributions to the G20 in 2023

The IEA has contributed widely to India's G20 Presidency in 2023. The Agency’s core engagement is its support for the Energy Transitions Working Group. It is also contributing to the Development Working Group and Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group in the Sherpa Track, and to the Framework Working Group and Sustainable Finance Working Groups in the Finance Track.

Building upon and expanding its partnership with the Government of India, the IEA has worked with the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Ministry of Mines to develop strategic outcomes over the course of the Energy Transition Working Group meetings in 2023, which were presented for agreement at the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial meeting in Goa on 22 July.

At the meeting, the IEA’s Executive Director, Dr. Fatih Birol, highlighted the fact that the clean energy transition is moving faster than many people realise, but not fast enough to be aligned with the goal of limiting global average temperatures rise to 1.5 °C. He encouraged all countries to consider the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 report, the need to triple renewable power capacity and double energy efficiency improvement by 2030, and the need to consume energy more sustainably, as demonstrated by India’s Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative. Dr. Birol also met with Ministers from several IEA Association countries, including Brazil, Kenya, Indonesia, Singapore, Argentina and South Africa.

India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas hosted a side event for the soon to be launched Global Biofuels Alliance. The head of the IEA’s Renewable Energy Division, Dr. Paolo Frankl, presented recommendations for the alliance from a new Agency report, Biofuel Policy in Brazil, India and the United States, speaking alongside ministers including the United States Secretary of Energy, and Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy.

In advance of the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial Meeting, the 14th Clean Energy Ministerial and 8th Mission Innovation Meeting took place in Goa on 21 July, co-hosted by India’s Ministry of Power. Dr. Birol participated in the plenary session on the global clean energy economy and moderated a high-level Hydrogen Roundtable, which was hosted by India’s Minister of Power, R.K. Singh, and included many Ministers and CEOs. On the sidelines of the Clean Energy Ministerial, the COP28 Presidency and the IEA co-hosted the first in a series of high-level dialogues on energy transitions together with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the UNFCCC.

The IEA’s contributions to the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group were highlighted in the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial Meeting Outcome Document and Chair’s Summary.

Earlier in the year, the Executive Director joined the G20 Development Ministers Meeting held in Varanasi on 11-12 June and chaired by India’s Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Dr. Birol briefed Ministers about the IEA’s analysis of India’s LiFE initiative. Our LiFE lessons from India report examines how the country has integrated several policies in its energy transition strategy that are aligned with the LiFE initiative, highlighting the potential for behavioural change and consumption choices to help advance energy transitions globally.

Following the meeting in Varanasi, the IEA co-hosted with India’s G20 Secretariat a major event in New Delhi on India’s role and priorities in the energy transition, including issues such as security of supply, deployment of renewable technologies and developing “fuels of the future”. The event, on 14 June, included India's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, and India’s G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, as well as the CEOs of Tata Power and Standard Chartered Bank India. Dr. Birol highlighted India’s impressive progress on its energy transition and the importance of its G20 leadership at a time of shifting energy and geopolitical landscapes.

Under the Energy Transitions Working Group, the IEA was a knowledge partner for several leading India G20 analytical reports and contributed widely to the discussions of the Group, notably on fuels for the future (biofuels, hydrogen), energy efficiency, critical minerals and diversified supply chains, low-cost finance and investment, and technology gaps, including with inputs to the following key reports and Presidency documents:

• Developing Resilient Renewable Energy Supply Chains for Global Clean Energy Transition report presented by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, highlighting the structure of global supply chains for solar photovoltaic, onshore and offshore wind, lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen.
• G20 Voluntary High Level Principles for Collaboration on Critical Minerals and a Critical minerals for India report of the Committee on Identification of Critical Minerals, developed by the Ministry of Mines, India
• G20 Voluntary Action Plan on Doubling the Rate of Energy Efficiency Improvements by 2030 and the Strategic Plan for Advancing Energy Efficiency Across Sectors, jointly with the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy and Sustainable Energy for All.
• G20 High Level Principles on Hydrogen
• G20 Voluntary Action Plan for Promoting Renewable Energy to Accelerate Universal Energy Access
• G20 Voluntary Action Plan for Lowering the Cost of Finance for Energy Transitions

The IEA was invited by the G20 co-chairs, the United Kingdom’s Treasury and India’s Ministry of Finance, to contribute to the deliberations of the G20 Framework Working Group. Throughout the year, the Agency briefed the Group on the energy crisis and its macroeconomic impacts, providing regular updates on the short-term and medium-term outlook for global energy markets and market functioning, including critical minerals supply chains. In March, the IEA also delivered analysis on macroeconomic risks stemming from climate change and transition pathways.

The G20 Framework Working Group requested that the IEA provide an update note to that analysis by February 2024 on the energy and food crisis and the macroeconomic consequences of climate change and transition pathways, jointly with the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The IEA, the IMF, and the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) are invited to provide a technical note to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in February 2024 on the macroeconomic implications of bottlenecks to climate transition and how macro-policy cooperation can help resolve them.

In June, the IEA participated in the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group on aspects of clean energy technology investment and finance, notably for policies and instruments to support innovation, early-stage and demonstration technologies.

In the run-up to the B20 Summit on 25-26 August 2023 in New Delhi, the IEA supported the B20 task force on Energy, Climate Change and Resource Efficiency as a knowledge partner, providing the IEA’s latest analysis on technology pathways to global net zero emissions and recommendations on how to achieve this. The Agency guidance is reflected in the B20’s communique to the G20 and policy paper.