The International Energy Agency (IEA) rolled out a set of proposals on Friday for governments to reduce their oil and gas consumption during the Iran war. Among those proposals was a return to the “work from home” policies of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
“We have recently launched the largest ever release of IEA emergency oil stocks – and I am in close contact with key governments around the world, including major energy producers and consumers, as part of our international energy diplomacy,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
“Today’s report provides a menu of immediate and concrete measures that can be taken on the demand side by governments, businesses and households to shelter consumers from the impacts of this crisis,” Birol said.
On March 20, the 32 member nations of the IEA unanimously voted to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves, the largest coordinated release in the 52-year history of the agency. The largest previous release was 182 million barrels in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The report released by the IEA on Friday outlined “demand-side measures available to governments, businesses and households” to reduce fuel consumption that “span road transport, air travel, cooking and industry.”
“The conflict has triggered the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries around 20% of global oil consumption, reduced to a trickle,” the report noted.
The IEA offered ten proposals for reducing consumption, ranging from relatively modest ideas like “encourage public transport use” and “avoid air travel if alternatives exist,” to more demanding measures like “alternate-day car access in big cities” and “increased car sharing.”
One of the ten proposals was “work from home where possible,” including a renewed emphasis on holding virtual meetings instead of using ground or air transportation to attend conferences.
“Working from home can reduce oil consumption from private vehicles used to commute. While not all jobs are suitable for working from home, it can be an effective measure when the job allows for it,” the report said.
The IEA contended that “about one-third of jobs are suitable for remote work” in advanced economies, compared to about one-fifth in developing nations. The report proposed that even mixing a few remote work days into the week could reduce oil consumption by up to six percent because commuter travel to work “accounts for between 5% and 30% of car activity across regions.”
“Governments can encourage businesses to allow their employees to work from home, and can mandate public officials to work from home, where possible, and close public buildings on certain days,” the IEA said, approvingly citing measures some countries have already introduced, such as four-day workweeks in the Philippines and Pakistan, and Wednesday closure of public offices in Sri Lanka.
The report also proposed lowering speed limits by ten kilometers per hour on highways (about five miles per hour) because it would reduce oil consumption, especially by heavy freight vehicles. The IEA suggested asking drivers to reduce their speed voluntarily at first, then imposing mandatory lower speed limits if compliance is not high enough.
Most of these suggestions are identical to the plan for reduced oil consumption produced by the IEA after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 – although back then, the IEA was more bullish on “high-speed and night trains” and “micro-mobility” options, which mostly meant electric scooters and bicycles.
The IEA also pushed electric vehicles (EV) in its 2022 report, an enthusiasm curiously absent from the 2026 version. Both reports encouraged returning to work-from-home strategies for at least part of the work week.
Read the full article here