The International Energy Agency (IEA)

Founded in 1974, the IEA is a forum for co-ordinating the energy policies of 28 industrialised countries. The IEA's objectives include improvement of the world energy supply and demand structure, more efficient use of energy, development of alternative energy sources to reduce dependence on any one source, assistance in the integration of environmental and energy policies, and the promotion of co-operative relations between oil producing and oil consuming countries. The IEA also maintains an emergency system to help Member governments alleviate the effects of oil supply disruptions by various measures including sharing available supplies.