International Energy Agency (IEA)

What the IEA is

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an autonomous intergovernmental organisation based in Paris.^[1] It was founded on 18 November 1974, after the 1973 oil crisis.^[1] It was set up within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the purpose of responding to disruptions in global oil supplies.^[1]

In practice, that origin shaped the institution: it was built as a standing arrangement among governments rather than as a one-off conference, so that when oil supply was interrupted, member countries had a shared place to pool information and coordinate a response instead of each reacting alone.

Who it covers

The agency's 32 member countries and 13 association countries together represent 75% of global energy demand.^[1] It provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector.^[1] Its remit is not limited to oil: it describes its work as covering the global energy sector, and its output combines policy advice with statistics and analysis.^[1] For a government, researcher or journalist who needs to judge an energy figure, the value of a body like this lies in gathering information that is otherwise scattered across countries into one place, so that comparisons become possible.

Publications and leadership

The IEA's flagship publication is the annual World Energy Outlook.^[1] Alongside it, the agency publishes reports such as Net Zero by 2050.^[1] The World Energy Outlook is the yearly volume in which the agency sets out its projections and scenarios for the energy sector; Net Zero by 2050 takes the form of a report on what a pathway to net-zero emissions would involve. Fatih Birol has been the agency's executive director since late 2015.^[1]

Energy and AI

In 2024 the IEA launched an initiative titled "Energy for AI, and AI for Energy" and organised the first Global Conference on Energy and AI.^[2] The name points to two directions of work: the energy that AI systems themselves consume, and the uses of AI inside energy systems.

In April 2025 the agency published an Energy and AI special report, which it described as the most comprehensive data-driven global analysis of the energy-AI nexus to date.^[2] A follow-up report addressing emerging trends appeared in April 2026.^[2] The agency has also worked with Canada and France on energy and AI issues during their G7 presidencies, and supported France and India on their AI summits.^[2]

Where it sits

The IEA began as an organisation built for one kind of emergency — a cut in oil supply — and its formal structure still reflects that origin.^[1] Its current work runs from long-term scenarios such as Net Zero by 2050 to the electricity demand created by AI.^[1][2] For readers trying to follow the energy side of the AI story, the annual World Energy Outlook and the energy-and-AI reports are the two sets of documents in which the agency sets out its numbers and its reading of them.