Ibrahim Baylan, Sweden’s Minister for Energy, was named as the chair of the International Energy Agency’s Ministerial meeting, which will be held in Paris in November 2017.
Ibrahim Baylan, Sweden’s Minister for Energy, was named as the chair of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) Ministerial meeting, which will be held in Paris in November 2017. According to a statement from the IEA, Minister Baylan was appointed unanimously during the IEA’s Governing Board meeting yesterday.
Baylan has been Sweden’s Energy Minister since 2014. He is also Minister in charge of Policy Coordination in the Swedish government. Baylan was Sweden’s minister for schools from 2004 to 2006. Among other positions, he served as Deputy Chair of the Committee on Education at the Swedish parliament from 2012 to 2014, and Secretary-General of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2009 to 2011.
– After knowing Minister Baylan for many years, I am convinced that he is the ideal choice to serve as Chair of the 2017 IEA Ministerial Meeting. His extensive knowledge, strong leadership and commitment to clean and secure energy will ensure dynamic and productive discussions as Ministers come together to find solutions to the global energy challenges we face, said Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, IEA.
Ministers from the IEA’s 29 member countries, along with two accession and five association countries, gather every two years for the IEA Ministerial Meeting to review and discuss the agency’s priorities and future programmes. This includes reviewing developments across energy markets, discussing strategies to safeguard energy security and to promote cleaner energy technology. The most recent IEA Ministerial Meeting was held in 2015 with US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz as Chairman.
The Ministerial also includes a joint session with the IEA Energy Business Council, which brings together chief executives from the world’s largest companies involved in energy exploration, production and consumption. Through Baylan’s appointment as Chairman of the IEA in 2017, Sweden will have a key role in driving the IEA’s agenda forward.
– I am proud to have been appointed Chairman of the IEA in 2017. It is an important and honourable mission. Through various initiatives the (Swedish) government has increased its international involvement in the energy sector in recent years. IEA is a central platform to reach out with our priorities and show drive for energy conversion, both nationally and globally, said Ibrahim Baylan in a statement.
