Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, has told Reuters that the economic decline caused by the COVID crisis has presented the world with “an historic opportunity” to boost clean energy technologies, both existing and emerging. In the former category are energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, while in the latter are lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen made via electrolysis, and Mr Birol believes that focuses on these technologies can help drive jobs growth. “Nobody has a problem, as far as I see, to push the clean energy technologies. But they want to be convinced that those policies accelerating clean energy transitions would also help economic recovery.” While calling for greater emphasis on such technologies, he also stressed that oil and gas companies should not be seen as global “troublemakers”, as both fuels will be essential to the economy for years to come, and oil in particular is a feedstock for production of a wide range of goods, including face masks and hand sanitiser. He said that the IEA will publish a special edition of the World Energy Outlook on June 18 that will look at green job creation policy options.