IEA urges energy industry to tackle environmental challenge

HOUSTON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Environmental carbon footprint remains a challenge for global oil and gas industry to tackle, said an Energy outlook released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Monday.

"We think there is an important homework for the oil executive here today which is the environmental footprint,"IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told reporters at the CERAWeek kicked off here on Monday.

CERAWeek is an annual Energy meeting held by the London-based information company IHS Markit featuring prominent speakers from Energy, technology and financial sectors. This year's meeting was attended by more than 4,500 guests from over 70 countries and regions.

The IEA outlook focused on the organization's expectations of Energy markets for the next five years and include implications for the global economy and geopolitics.

According to Birol, not all Energy companies take the environmental problems seriously enough. "There are certain areas that the oil industry needs to look into,"he said, adding that Energy companies need to minimize methane emissions and old operations should use more renewable Energy such as solar and wind.

"This issue is a challenge for the oil industry and we are very much in a view that oil and gas industry should tackle this challenge," he emphasized.