- Ministers to debate on upcoming energy challenges the world is facing
The third World Future Energy Summit is gaining momentum as world leaders, policy makers, industry experts, thinkers, investors and researchers from over 100 countries will meet next January in Abu Dhabi, where they will collectively identify real solutions to today’s climate change and energy challenges.
Government Ministers from North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa will lead the first plenary session of the upcoming Summit, where they will discuss the actions necessary to balance demands the world is facing between an economic and social need to boost energy infrastructure to fuel economic growth and environmental imperatives that must be met to ensure sustainability.
Participants at the plenary forum 1 at the Ministers roundtable discussion are The Honourable Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, Canada, H.E. Mohamed bin Dha’en Al Hamili, UAE Minister of Energy; H.E. Dr Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy, India; H.E. Hany Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ghana; H.E. Federal Counsellor Moritz Leuenberger, Minister of Energy, Environment and Communication in Switzerland; H.E. Maria van der Hoeven, Minister of Economic Affairs, The Netherlands; H.E. Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland; H.E. Jesca Eriyo, Minister of State for the Environment, Uganda; H.E. Ola Alterå, Secretary of State for Energy, Sweden; H.E. Tadahiro Matsushita, Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan; H.E. Kim Young Hak, Vice Minister for Trade and Energy, South Korea and Hélène Pelosse, Director General of IRENA.
Ensuring a sustainable energy supply is an issue that is becoming more critical by the day. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that 70% of the increased energy demand to 2030 will come from developing countries. The other 30% of this growth will be from developed economies, which will continue to witness growing demand as they get wealthier, and as their population expands with increasing migration from the developing world.
The growth rates of developing countries’ emissions currently outstrip the rates of the developed world. Nevertheless, developing countries claim they bear less historical responsibility for the emissions already in the atmosphere, and that their emissions per capita are far less than that of the developed world. This ongoing debate will be brought to WFES’ Energy Ministers roundtable.
Global energy demand is expected to soar 44 percent over the next two decades with most of the demand coming from developing countries such as China and Russia, according to the forecast released earlier in 2009 by the U.S. government’s top energy forecasting agency the Energy Information Administration. The majority of this expected increase in demand will take place in developing countries, where growth in occurring most rapidly and a transition to higher standards of living is taking place.
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