§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement about the meeting of the governing board of the International Energy Agency at ministerial level, which he chaired in Paris on 24 May.
§ Mr. LawsonThe governing board of the International Energy Agency met at Ministerial level, in Paris on Monday 24 May, 1982 under my chairmanship. My hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor), Under-Secretary of State, represented the United Kingdom. Copies of the communiqué are available in the Libraries of the House.
IEA Ministers met against the background of a more relaxed oil market. They welcomed this, and the considerable progress that IEA countries continue to make in reducing oil dependency and in increasing energy efficiency. They recognised that energy pricing had played an important role in achieving progress to date and committed themselves to pay particular attention to economic energy pricing when developing national energy policies.
Ministers recognised that longer term uncertainties about future energy supplies remain. They reaffirmed the need to reduce oil dependency and to increase the economic use of coal, gas and nuclear power and to maintain the effectiveness of their energy conservation programmes. They also agreed on the need to maintain contacts with oil producing countries and to improve better mutual understanding.