Energy Secretary Chris Wright threatened to pull the United States out of the International Energy Agency unless it backtracks, within one year, on its efforts to pursue net-zero carbon emissions, meaning having countries emit no more carbon into the atmosphere than they pull out of it.
Wright pressured allied energy ministers at the IEA’s 2026 Ministerial Meeting in Paris to prioritize the production of traditional fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, over renewable alternatives.
“There has been such a group mentality, 10 years invested in a destructive illusion of net zero by 2050, that the US will use all the pressure we have to get the IEA to eventually, in the next year or so, move away from this agenda,” Wright said, according to Reuters.
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Wright’s comments represent a reversal of U.S. positioning from when the Obama administration, along with nearly 200 other countries, signed the Paris Agreement, which included a pledge to limit global warming by phasing out fossil fuels and accelerating the deployment of cleaner alternatives to lower greenhouse gas emissions and reach net-zero by 2050.
President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international agreement, for the second time, on his first day in office. Since then, the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on other signatories to do the same and move away from climate change-related policies and regulations that the administration claims threaten energy security.
While in Paris, Wright accused countries of prioritizing net-zero goals of committing “economic suicide” by moving away from fossil fuels.
He also blasted the IEA — which publishes multiple energy scenarios and strategies exploring future trends of emissions, pollutants and investments — for releasing scenarios that he claimed were based on “climate ambitions” rather than “energy data.”
“Every report has a net-zero 2050 case in it,” Wright said earlier in the week. “There is a 0.0 chance of the world hitting net-zero 2050, 0.0%.”
The U.S. energy secretary then called for the IEA to move away from outlining a pathway for member nations to hit net-zero by 2050, or else risk losing the U.S. as a member.
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“The nations are free to engage in any agenda they want, but the energy agency, founded for energy security, needs to focus on energy security and not energy impoverishment,” Wright said Thursday.
Publicly, the IEA and other member countries have given no indication that they will cave to the Trump administration’s demands.
In a press briefing held Thursday at the close of the ministerial meeting, IEA executive director Fatih Birol told reporters that the organization will continue to have multiple scenarios going forward.
When pressed further as to whether the IEA would consider dropping the net-zero scenario, Birol explained that the most recent energy outlook, which included the net-zero strategy, was published just a few months ago.
“What will be in the next virtual energy outlook? We have not yet even thought about this,” Birol said, calling it a “long-term process.”
Privately, however, Wright claimed on Thursday that the U.S. demands have some support.
Wright said a “lot of nations” have told the U.S. that they wish to be “competitive again,” reindustrialize their economies, and support their militaries by prioritizing fossil fuel growth over renewables.
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He admitted, however, that Europe will be unlikely to backtrack.
“A number of the European nations have staked their political platforms and frankly, their desire to be relevant in some area in the world on a net zero agenda. Only the cold, hard reality, the uprising of people and voting out political parties can change things,” Wright said, according Reuters.
