The International Energy Agency (IEA) and China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) have agreed to launch the process of establishing a new IEA-China energy cooperation center in Beijing.
The center will facilitate enhanced collaboration in key areas such as energy security, renewables, clean energy technologies, energy efficiency, energy data and statistics, and energy policy analysis, IEA informed.
Expected to serve as an umbrella under which a wide variety of cooperative bilateral programs will be coordinated, the center would be scaled up in phases, with the first phase focusing largely on liaison and coordination activities.
Fatih Birol , IEA Chief Executuve, said: “With the development of this landmark center, the IEA and China can realize the full potential of our cooperation and move together towards a more sustainable energy future.”
The announcement of the new center comes as China continues to make progress in its efforts to transition to a more secure and sustainable energy system, backed up by IEA preliminary data released earlier this month that show China’s energy-related CO2 emissions decreased by 1.5% in 2015, mostly due to the country’s renewable energy related activities, IEA states.