MADRID (AFP) — The head of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday he would press G8 leaders at a summit next week to adopt commitments to energy efficiency measures as part of the fight against climate change.
"We are recommending that energy efficiency is one of most cost-effective ways for consumer countries," IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka told AFP on Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid.
"We will recommend 25 very specific items of energy efficiency," he added, saying they would range from promoting high tyre pressure to reduce vehicle fuel consumption to installing housing insulation.
"We would like them to adopt these measures and ask the IEA to monitor developments in the future."
World leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) club of countries are to meet on July 7-9 in Toyako, northern Japan.
Observers predict the group will be vague about its commitment to climate change, reflecting the issue's weaker status in the absence of European campaigning and in the face of sky-high oil prices.
Overcoming fierce US resistance, Germany coaxed the rich nations' club into agreeing to "consider seriously" the aim of at least halving worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
Today, scientific concern about climate change has if anything deepened -- but the political focus on it has blurred.
European diplomats predict a summit compromise that will not take Heiligendamm's sketchy pledge any distance farther.
The International Energy Agency is the energy watchdog for the industrialised world, financed with public money to supply research and monitoring services. It is based in Paris.
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