IAEA chief seeks agency to include developing nations

VIENNA // The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for the creation of a new global agency to serve the comprehensive energy needs of the developing world as well as developed countries. "What we have now is a very fragmented approach to energy," Dr Mohammed el Baradei said yesterday in his opening address to the IAEA's two-day scientific forum. "The situation has struck me as odd."

Although a number of international energy organisations exist, including OPEC, the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the International Energy Forum in Riyadh, the newly created International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi and the IAEA itself, all either confined their activities to particular sectors or mainly addressed the needs of rich countries, Dr el Baradei said. UN-Energy, the UN's inter-agency mechanism for addressing energy issues, had no budget and no authority, he added.

Activities of the proposed new agency would include providing medium and long-term assessments of energy supplies; co-ordinating the transfer of energy technology to poor countries; providing information on the impact of any particular country's energy use on its neighbours; funding energy research and development, with an emphasis on assisting developing countries; and working to assure energy supplies for all countries during emergencies.

"There was an effort in the 1970s to establish a global energy organisation. That failed. We need to revisit the idea," Dr el Baradei said. But setting up a new agency along the lines he envisaged would not be a simple task, as it would require a new international convention on energy. "It will be a long and difficult process," he said. Dr el Baradei noted a "huge gap" in access to energy between rich and poor countries, which he said was a major cause of international insecurity.

"Without energy, there is no development." tcarlisle@thenational.ae