Activities, Objectives and Membership

The Energy Business Council (EBC) convenes a few times each year in order to:

• Discuss recent market developments and current challenges in energy markets;
• Establish a forum for interactive discussions between ministers and industry leaders to debate what kind of long-term stable policy frameworks are necessary to stimulate investment in sustainable energy infrastructure; and
• Provide inputs from businesses  on the IEA’s work, particularly the World Energy Outlook.

EBC meetings are held as:

• Private events with the participation of industry executives and IEA senior management;
• Joint sessions with the IEA Governing Board, the main decision-making body of the IEA, which brings together directors-general from ministries of the IEA’s 28 member countries;
• Joint sessions between ministers from IEA member countries and IEA partner countries and industry’s chief executives as a formal part of IEA ministerial meetings; and
• Virtual meetings (through web-phone conferences).

EBC companies’ operations are international and membership of the group evolves over time according to priority issues within the IEA work programme. Participation in the EBC is by invitation only. In order to foster a frank and constructive dialogue, all EBC meetings are conducted under the Chatham House Rule, which states that “participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed”.

The following list includes organisations that have attended at least one of the EBC meetings organised so far: