Fatih Birol

02Sep

The Age of Electricity Is Becoming the Age of Energy Backlash

International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol has labeled the coming decades “the Age of Electricity.” Global electricity demand is growing at twice the rate of total energy demand. Whether it’s the emergence and rapid adoption of air conditioning, electric vehicles or data centers, surging electricity demand is upending both energy policy and politics.  As Politico’s Ben Storrow […]
26Aug

The Electricity Demand Story Everyone Is Missing

The world is using more electricity than ever. Global power demand reached a record high in 2025, growing at more than twice the rate of overall energy demand. But the single largest driver of that growth isn’t artificial intelligence, data centers or electric vehicles. It’s air conditioning. Speaking at an oil and gas conference in […]
16Oct

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat

Every month, projections on just how much and how fast U.S. electricity demand is growing keep rising. As those projections soar, the arithmetic of the energy transition is being rewritten in real time. There’s the unforgettable line in Jaws, when the chief of police, Martin Brody, sees the shark for the first time. Stunned, he […]
13Jul

European Energy Independence with U.S. Coal

This week, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, warned that the global energy crisis is likely to get worse before it gets better, adding the coming winter for Europe, “will be very, very difficult.” His remarks reflect the increasing likelihood that Russia will completely cut off the flow of its natural gas […]
08Jun

U.S. Coal to Europe

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, recently warned that the current global energy crisis is in fact bigger than the oil crises of the 1970s and 80s. “Now we have an oil crisis, a gas crisis and an electricity crisis at the same time,” he said. He also warned it’s likely to last […]
05Apr

Innovation as a Path Forward on Energy and Climate Includes all Fuels

Just when you think the global energy crisis has reached rock bottom, it seems to find new depths. March will go down in the record books as the most expensive month for power prices in European history. And while the acute nature of the current pain stems from Russia’s weaponization of its energy resources, it’s […]
27Oct

Energy Reality Hangs Over Glasgow

The global energy crisis has come at an incredibly important moment. In the run up to the United Nation’s climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the world is getting a fresh reminder of the importance of existing energy systems and the precarious nature of the energy security, reliability and affordability too often taken for granted. […]
21Jul

Charting a Course Towards Globally Replicable Emissions Reduction

As much attention as domestic climate and energy policy are given, few policymakers seem willing to grapple with global energy trends and reality. Senator Joe Manchin is not one of them. As the senator has repeatedly pointed out, the energy transition and the move away from fossil fuels simply isn’t happening in much of the […]
30Jun

The World Needs U.S. Leadership on Coal CCUS

For years, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) was seen as just a coal technology, dismissed by environmentalists as little more than a talking point, an unnecessary or false solution to addressing emissions. Today, energy and climate experts – from Dr. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, to John Kerry, the […]
10Mar

The Path Forward Goes Through CCUS

Does the world have the technology solutions it needs to decarbonize? The answer, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and technologists, including Bill Gates, is a resounding no. The ongoing debate about and relentless focus on near-term national emissions goals misses the bigger, far more important picture. The U.S. is likely to contribute 5% […]