Global Climate Change. Science, economics and policy regional viewpoints. Industrialized countries

At the International Energy Agency, much of our recent attention has focused on integrating the environmental impacts of energy use in the formulation of energy policy, and climate change is clearly the most pressing global environmental concern to be addressed in that regard. Indeed, the successful reconciliation of energy security, economic growth and environmental sustainability is at the heart of the IEA and OECD's mission, both within and beyond the OECD family of twenty-five industrialized nations. Energy is the largest source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and therefore presents the largest sector for implementing responses to reduce emissions. IEA Ministers are fully engaged in finding the means to meet commitments made in their countries to stabilize or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources, recognizing that each country must tailor its programme to national circumstances but present it in a transparent and comparable fashion alongside those of their fellow nations. The IEA will publish a 220-page book in just a few weeks time which surveys the climate change policy initiatives of all OECD countries except Mexico and gives years of comparable energy and environment data for 1987 to 1992. [Climate Change Policy Initiatives-1994 UPdate, Volume I, OECD Countries; IEA, Paris, June 1994.] (EG)