Ministers from countries representing the vast majority of global GDP, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will take part in the International Energy Agency’s Clean Energy Transitions Summit on Thursday 9 July.

The gathering will take place around a virtual table to discuss measures to boost economies, create jobs, reduce global emissions and make energy systems more resilient.

The summit is the highest-profile energy and climate discussion since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Attendees will include representatives of the world’s largest energy users: Minister Zhang Jianhua of China, Secretary Dan Brouillette of the United States, Minister R.K. Singh of India, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans of the European Commission, and Minister Kajiyama Hiroshi of Japan.

Among the high-level participants will be António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Alok Sharma, Secretary of State of the United Kingdom and President of the upcoming COP26, as well as Ministers representing the countries that held the past two COP meetings. They will be joined by the President of the Asian Development Bank, the President of the World Economic Forum (Davos), CEOs from across the energy sector, major investors, and representatives from civil society.

“The IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit represents the key moment in 2020 to build momentum towards international energy and climate goals,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director. “Rather than letting the Covid-19 crisis undermine our clean energy transitions, we need to take advantage of the massive economic recovery plans to achieve a definitive peak in carbon emissions and put the world on path to sustainable recovery.”

In addition to two plenary sessions, the summit will consist of high-level panels. These will focus on Accelerating Clean Energy Technology Innovation, co-chaired by Tina Bru, Minister of Petroleum and Energy of Norway, and Juan Carlos Jobet, Minister of Energy of Chile; An Inclusive and Equitable Recovery, co-chaired by Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources of Canada, and Aziz Rabbah, Minister of Energy, Mines and Environment of Morocco; and A Resilient and Sustainable Electricity Sector, co-chaired by Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, and Sontirat Sontijirawong, Minister of Energy of Thailand.

The IEA first announced plans to convene the Clean Energy Transitions Summit during its Ministerial Meeting in December – before COVID-19 became a global health emergency. As the pandemic escalated, the IEA led the calls worldwide for governments to put clean energy at the heart of their economic recovery plans in order to avoid the kind of sharp rebound in emissions that followed the 2008-2009 crisis. The IEA quickly refocused its work to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the energy world, conducting in-depth assessments across fuels, technologies and emissions trends – and developing policy advice for governments to help them respond.

The high-level discussions at the Summit will draw on key IEA reports, most notably the Sustainable Recovery Plan and the Special Report on Clean Energy Innovation. Together, those two reports provide both near-term and longer-term strategies for improving economic development and meeting energy and climate goals.

View the full Summit Agenda