Energy leaders gather at World Energy Leaders' Summit to address energy trilemma

World Energy Council provides forum for high-level dialogue

Istanbul - Over 100 energy leaders from 39 countries, including 9 energy ministers, have been meeting today (Friday, 20 April 2012) at the World Energy Leaders' Summit in Turkey. The event, held at the Ciragan Palace Kempinski, was opened by Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, and the Chairman of the World Energy Council (WEC), Pierre Gadonneix.

The focus of the day was to enable the WEC's community of global energy leaders to engage in an on-going, high-level dialogue to address the critical issues affecting the energy world. The event in Istanbul, under the title of "Delivering Tomorrow's Energy in a Context of High Uncertainty", enabled policymakers and industry leaders to discuss the ways to overcome the energy policy trilemma.

Speaking at the event, Pierre Gadonneix said:

"Istanbul is the ideal setting for our Summit, being at a crossroads between Asia and Europe and a living example of a pathway to modernity. Growth in global energy demand is essentially taking place in developing and emerging countries. However, at the same time this growth requires technology transfer from developed to developing countries. On a broader perspective, international governance in the energy sector is necessary to achieve climate and environment protection, energy safety and acceptability.

These demand an on-going dialogue between energy leaders in all countries. Hence, the World Energy Council is uniquely placed to convene this type of forum to promote our sustainable energy future, and this summit in Turkey is designed to address these questions at a time of great uncertainty."

Topics during the day explored how to best address the energy policy trilemma (trade-offs between energy security, social equity and environmental impact mitigation), the transition of natural gas markets and implications on geopolitics, financing issues for a low-carbon infrastructure as well as energy storage as a key to unlocking Turkey's potential as a renewable energy hub.  The Turkish government also used the event to sign a US$20billion international energy arrangement with a consortium from Candu Energy and EÜAS

The World Energy Leaders' Summit in Istanbul provided the occasion for JK Kim, President and CEO of KEPCO, the South Korean electric utility, to officially renew the company's partnership with the WEC for the third consecutive year. KEPCO has been a long-standing supporter of the WEC Korean Member Committee and it will be the host sponsor of the WEC's 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea. KEPCO's President and CEO is also serving as Chair of the Daegu Congress organising committee. One of the WEC's next events will be the World Energy Leaders' Summit in India in February 2013.

Summing up the day, Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the World Energy Council, said:

"Today less than 1 percent of pension fund investment finds its way into energy projects. It's obvious that getting the energy trilemma right in national energy policies will be the only way to secure the investment required for our future energy needs. The investment community that participates in these events with our energy leadership community create a positive dialogue process to remove the barriers holding this investment back."

NOTES:

World Energy Leaders' Summit (WELS)
The World Energy Leaders' Summit is organised twice a year by the World Energy Council (WEC) for its community of global energy leaders to engage in a high-level dialogue on the critical issues affecting the energy world.
WELS is generally held in countries critical to world energy interests, and co-hosted by the country's energy minister and the Chair of the WEC's Member Committee of that country.  Participation is by invitation only and is exclusively for the WEC's Patron and Global Partner CEOs, a select number of energy ministers, the WEC's Officers and Chairs of National Member Committees, and select guests and experts.