IEA chief: World faces ‘greatest global energy security challenge in history’

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, told the BBC on Friday that governments need to “be more vocal” about cutting energy usage amid an unprecedented threat to global energy security caused by US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

A report released by the IEA on Friday advised reducing energy demand in businesses and households by reducing motorway speed limits and working from home where possible.

He said that the challenge posed by the conflict is “much bigger” than the natural gas shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the aftermath of the 1970s oil shock, out of which the IEA was created.

Birol added that the “single most important solution” to the crisis was to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

However, he warned that “the damage to energy infrastructure” is likely to take “months and months” to return to prewar levels, and will have “repercussions for the economy, especially emerging and developing countries”.