As 2014 came to a close, we asked our member committees and Future Energy Leaders what their best moments were last year. Here’s what they had to say:
Member Committees
Argentina
[ Argentina member committee's training course]
The Argentine committee launched the first edition of our Knowledge Development Programme for Energy Leaders which has two parts: the training course, and the community of energy leaders.
The course, based on WEC studies and programmes, enables participants to develop an overview of energy issues. We have found that there is a large unmet demand amongst many professionals, whether they are or are not working in the energy field, to understand the current complexities of the sector. The programme had 172 attendees both onsite and distance learning.
We presented this programme at last year's Executive Assembly in Cartagena and we are delighted with the impact achieved within the WEC family.
Austria
WEC Austria’s best moments in 2014 were our events. In February we held an evening of discussion on the 2013 World Energy Congress, a Symposium on Energy Innovation, and a Workshop on Energy Efficiency. These were held with various partners. We then held a joint event with the UN SE4ALL and the Chamber of Commerce in March, and our General Meeting in April with Secretary General Dr Christoph Frei as our special guest.
Bolivia
The Argentine committee launched the first edition of our Knowledge Development Programme for Energy Leaders which has two parts: the training course, and the community of energy leaders.
The course, based on WEC studies and programmes, enables participants to develop an overview of energy issues. We have found that there is a large unmet demand amongst many professionals, whether they are or are not working in the energy field, to understand the current complexities of the sector. The programme had 172 attendees both onsite and distance learning.
We presented this programme at last year's Executive Assembly in Cartagena and we are delighted with the impact achieved within the WEC family.
Austria
WEC Austria’s best moments in 2014 were our events. In February we held an evening of discussion on the 2013 World Energy Congress, a Symposium on Energy Innovation, and a Workshop on Energy Efficiency. These were held with various partners. We then held a joint event with the UN SE4ALL and the Chamber of Commerce in March, and our General Meeting in April with Secretary General Dr Christoph Frei as our special guest.
Bolivia
[The Bolivia Gas & Energy Congress is the annual flagship event of the Bolivian member committee]
Putting on our annual congress, which was attended by renowned personalities in the international energy field including our country's Vice President Alvaro García, has been an important moment. It was also significant to receive representatives of the Council's South American member committees at the event, alongside the Council's Secretary General.
Canada
The Energy Council of Canada’s mission is to forge a better understanding of energy issues in order to optimally shape the energy sector for the benefit of all Canadians. This mission was fulfilled in 2014 through four regional events across Canada; the WEC North America Region Energy Summit in June organised jointly with the USEA and Mexico’s WEC secretariat; and our celebration of energy leadership through the Canadian Energy Person of the Year award. Total participation exceeded 600. We continued to support energy policy research in two of Canada’s leading universities. Canadian experts are actively involved in several WEC studies, and for the first time, input from Canadian energy executives was provided to the 2015 World Energy Issues Monitor. www.energy.ca
Putting on our annual congress, which was attended by renowned personalities in the international energy field including our country's Vice President Alvaro García, has been an important moment. It was also significant to receive representatives of the Council's South American member committees at the event, alongside the Council's Secretary General.
Canada
The Energy Council of Canada’s mission is to forge a better understanding of energy issues in order to optimally shape the energy sector for the benefit of all Canadians. This mission was fulfilled in 2014 through four regional events across Canada; the WEC North America Region Energy Summit in June organised jointly with the USEA and Mexico’s WEC secretariat; and our celebration of energy leadership through the Canadian Energy Person of the Year award. Total participation exceeded 600. We continued to support energy policy research in two of Canada’s leading universities. Canadian experts are actively involved in several WEC studies, and for the first time, input from Canadian energy executives was provided to the 2015 World Energy Issues Monitor. www.energy.ca
[Executive Assembly in Cartagena, Colombia]
Colombia
2014 was a successful year for COCME in terms of our work, exposure, and recognition, largely thanks to the Executive Assembly in Cartagena. The event raised the bar in our engagement with our member businesses and with the government, who backed every aspect of this big project.
One of the biggest challenges of the Assembly was developing – all within the same week – the CEO Roundtable, the Future Energy Leaders’ Summit, the Ministerial meeting, and the Energy Trilemma Summit meetings. We achieved all this, and we were proud to see that our event was attended by the President and Vice President of Colombia, energy ministers of more than 20 countries, and senior executives from 68 countries.
We also organised three events where we explored the Council’s studies, energy scenarios, and renewables and energy efficiency. These gathered 500 people from the energy sector and firmly positioned our committee at the heart of the Colombian energy community.
Denmark
Colombia
2014 was a successful year for COCME in terms of our work, exposure, and recognition, largely thanks to the Executive Assembly in Cartagena. The event raised the bar in our engagement with our member businesses and with the government, who backed every aspect of this big project.
One of the biggest challenges of the Assembly was developing – all within the same week – the CEO Roundtable, the Future Energy Leaders’ Summit, the Ministerial meeting, and the Energy Trilemma Summit meetings. We achieved all this, and we were proud to see that our event was attended by the President and Vice President of Colombia, energy ministers of more than 20 countries, and senior executives from 68 countries.
We also organised three events where we explored the Council’s studies, energy scenarios, and renewables and energy efficiency. These gathered 500 people from the energy sector and firmly positioned our committee at the heart of the Colombian energy community.
Denmark
[ WEC Denmark launches its new website]
Following the launch of the new WEC website, our committee decided to change our own website design and structure to obtain closer resemblance to the WEC’s new visual identity. The new Danish website provides an easy overview of WEC Denmark and underlines our close relation to WEC.
Hans Hvidtfeldt Larsen, President of WEC Denmark: “Our new website offers our Danish users quick and easy access to essential information on the activities in WEC Denmark and its global network of member committees in other member countries. It also gives the users easy access to find the WEC’s events, publications, and work programmes”.
WEC Denmark’s new website can be viewed here: http://wec-danmark.dk/
Estonia
For WEC-Estonia, 2014 was a year dedicated to solving urgent energy policy issues in the country. We managed to partner with our Parliament and with Estonian Ministries, while on an international scale we focused on sharing our best practices at many events. We would like to thank Mr Sandor Liive, who served as our Chairman for 9 years before stepping down from his position in December 2014.
France
Our 2014 highlight was our 3rd European Energy Forum which we organised in Paris in April on the theme “What policy measures for energy transition in Europe?” It was a great occasion to discuss the implications of new European policy with high-level experts and other WEC members. We truly believe our 4th Forum this year (12-13 March) will be even more interesting, especially in the context of COP-21 which will be held at the end of this year.
Italy
Following the launch of the new WEC website, our committee decided to change our own website design and structure to obtain closer resemblance to the WEC’s new visual identity. The new Danish website provides an easy overview of WEC Denmark and underlines our close relation to WEC.
Hans Hvidtfeldt Larsen, President of WEC Denmark: “Our new website offers our Danish users quick and easy access to essential information on the activities in WEC Denmark and its global network of member committees in other member countries. It also gives the users easy access to find the WEC’s events, publications, and work programmes”.
WEC Denmark’s new website can be viewed here: http://wec-danmark.dk/
Estonia
For WEC-Estonia, 2014 was a year dedicated to solving urgent energy policy issues in the country. We managed to partner with our Parliament and with Estonian Ministries, while on an international scale we focused on sharing our best practices at many events. We would like to thank Mr Sandor Liive, who served as our Chairman for 9 years before stepping down from his position in December 2014.
France
Our 2014 highlight was our 3rd European Energy Forum which we organised in Paris in April on the theme “What policy measures for energy transition in Europe?” It was a great occasion to discuss the implications of new European policy with high-level experts and other WEC members. We truly believe our 4th Forum this year (12-13 March) will be even more interesting, especially in the context of COP-21 which will be held at the end of this year.
Italy
[Students from the University of L’Aquila attend WEC Italy's energy training course]
WEC Italy started a collaboration with universities to promote training courses for students on global energy issues and energy scenarios for the coming decades. For this initiative, which was sponsored by Edison, one of our enduring supporting members, we hosted students from the University of L’Aquila. The city of L’Aquila, which in Italian means ‘eagle’, is a university town in central Italy. It was particularly hard-hit by the earthquake of 2009 which damaged several buildings at the university and killed several students. Our programme is a way show that despite such a natural disaster, “eagle” comes back to fly.
Japan
The highlight of 2014 for WEC Japan was the Executive Assembly in Cartagena, Colombia. Teruaki Masumoto, Chair of WEC Japan: “I was very impressed with a comment made by the Vice Chair of North America on the outcome of the issues map where energy price was found to be the top critical uncertainty specifically concerning the drop in crude oil prices, which became a reality after OPEC’s decision to leave its output target unchanged only a month after the Executive Assembly.”
Kazakhstan
WEC Kazakhstan for the first time hosted the World Energy Leaders’ Summit in Astana. The success of the summit was largely due to the joint efforts of Jambulat Sarsenov, Deputy Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s Association of Oil-Gas and Energy organizations (Kazenergy) and Almassadam Satkaliyev, CEO of Samruk-Energy.
The 60 energy leaders and delegates from 25 countries that attended had the opportunity to discuss not only pressing development issues facing the global energy industry, but also to visit the country’s rapidly growing new capital and experience Kazakhstani culture.
Lebanon
WEC Lebanon continued to grow in 2014, reaching more than 60 corporate members. Our involvement with the London Secretariat also expanded, allowing a wonderful exchange of know-how building on the Council’s great studies. The Cartagena Executive Assembly was a memorable gathering for us. What kept us awake at night in 2014 were efforts to build a network of energy leaders in Lebanon and to find solutions for the challenges posed by the energy sector and climate change. Given the volatility of the global energy sector, we expect 2015 will be another year for urgency, hope, and ambition.
Poland
The Cartagena Executive Assembly was one of the highlights for us. In 2014 we also presented our perspective on the impact of European geopolitics at the annual WEC European regional meeting. We were pleased that we were invited to take part in the revised WEC work programme, where we now have representatives in all Study Groups and Knowledge Networks.
We were proud to hold our annual conference, “Capacity market – solution for Poland?” in collaboration with Poland’s Ministry of economy. The most memorable moment for us was having WEC Chair, Marie-José Nadeau visit our country. In her visit was she met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Mr. Janusz Piechociński, and the Chair of the Polish Committee, Mr Henryk Majchrzak.
South Africa
We launched our monthly public meeting programme. We held meetings in Johannesburg and Cape Town every month from January to November and covered a wide range of energy topics. Attendance averaged at over 100 delegates per meeting in Johannesburg and over 70 per meeting in Cape Town.
Our main highlight of 2014 was the award of Dr Chris Cooper with honorary life membership in recognition for his significant contribution to SANEA and WEC over many years.
We also held the Action for Energy meeting in November with the National Planning Commission. This meeting aimed to involve a range of experts from the electricity, liquid fuels and gas sectors in order to identify the major energy obstacles to South Africa in implementing the National Development Plan.
Spain
In 2014 WEC Spain launched the first edition of our “Energy and Geo-strategy” publication in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Defense. The publication gave an update of the key issues in the global energy industry from a geopolitical perspective. Additionally, our annual event, “Global Energy: Strategies and Values”, gathered more than 350 experts to discuss and exchange ideas about some of the major challenges for the international energy agenda, including how energy companies address human rights in their operating activities. We also continued with our national Issues Monitor which provides an idea about what keeps Spanish energy leaders awake at night.
Sweden
WEC Sweden had a good year with our arrangement of two seminars. On 12 November we held a seminar that discussed climate work in the run up to COP 21 in Paris in December 2015 where we had more than 70 participants including the French Ambassador to Stockholm. In this seminar we also informed delegates about the outcome of the Executive Assembly in Cartagena.
WEC Italy started a collaboration with universities to promote training courses for students on global energy issues and energy scenarios for the coming decades. For this initiative, which was sponsored by Edison, one of our enduring supporting members, we hosted students from the University of L’Aquila. The city of L’Aquila, which in Italian means ‘eagle’, is a university town in central Italy. It was particularly hard-hit by the earthquake of 2009 which damaged several buildings at the university and killed several students. Our programme is a way show that despite such a natural disaster, “eagle” comes back to fly.
Japan
The highlight of 2014 for WEC Japan was the Executive Assembly in Cartagena, Colombia. Teruaki Masumoto, Chair of WEC Japan: “I was very impressed with a comment made by the Vice Chair of North America on the outcome of the issues map where energy price was found to be the top critical uncertainty specifically concerning the drop in crude oil prices, which became a reality after OPEC’s decision to leave its output target unchanged only a month after the Executive Assembly.”
Kazakhstan
WEC Kazakhstan for the first time hosted the World Energy Leaders’ Summit in Astana. The success of the summit was largely due to the joint efforts of Jambulat Sarsenov, Deputy Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s Association of Oil-Gas and Energy organizations (Kazenergy) and Almassadam Satkaliyev, CEO of Samruk-Energy.
The 60 energy leaders and delegates from 25 countries that attended had the opportunity to discuss not only pressing development issues facing the global energy industry, but also to visit the country’s rapidly growing new capital and experience Kazakhstani culture.
Lebanon
WEC Lebanon continued to grow in 2014, reaching more than 60 corporate members. Our involvement with the London Secretariat also expanded, allowing a wonderful exchange of know-how building on the Council’s great studies. The Cartagena Executive Assembly was a memorable gathering for us. What kept us awake at night in 2014 were efforts to build a network of energy leaders in Lebanon and to find solutions for the challenges posed by the energy sector and climate change. Given the volatility of the global energy sector, we expect 2015 will be another year for urgency, hope, and ambition.
Poland
The Cartagena Executive Assembly was one of the highlights for us. In 2014 we also presented our perspective on the impact of European geopolitics at the annual WEC European regional meeting. We were pleased that we were invited to take part in the revised WEC work programme, where we now have representatives in all Study Groups and Knowledge Networks.
We were proud to hold our annual conference, “Capacity market – solution for Poland?” in collaboration with Poland’s Ministry of economy. The most memorable moment for us was having WEC Chair, Marie-José Nadeau visit our country. In her visit was she met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Mr. Janusz Piechociński, and the Chair of the Polish Committee, Mr Henryk Majchrzak.
South Africa
We launched our monthly public meeting programme. We held meetings in Johannesburg and Cape Town every month from January to November and covered a wide range of energy topics. Attendance averaged at over 100 delegates per meeting in Johannesburg and over 70 per meeting in Cape Town.
Our main highlight of 2014 was the award of Dr Chris Cooper with honorary life membership in recognition for his significant contribution to SANEA and WEC over many years.
We also held the Action for Energy meeting in November with the National Planning Commission. This meeting aimed to involve a range of experts from the electricity, liquid fuels and gas sectors in order to identify the major energy obstacles to South Africa in implementing the National Development Plan.
Spain
In 2014 WEC Spain launched the first edition of our “Energy and Geo-strategy” publication in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Defense. The publication gave an update of the key issues in the global energy industry from a geopolitical perspective. Additionally, our annual event, “Global Energy: Strategies and Values”, gathered more than 350 experts to discuss and exchange ideas about some of the major challenges for the international energy agenda, including how energy companies address human rights in their operating activities. We also continued with our national Issues Monitor which provides an idea about what keeps Spanish energy leaders awake at night.
Sweden
WEC Sweden had a good year with our arrangement of two seminars. On 12 November we held a seminar that discussed climate work in the run up to COP 21 in Paris in December 2015 where we had more than 70 participants including the French Ambassador to Stockholm. In this seminar we also informed delegates about the outcome of the Executive Assembly in Cartagena.
Future Energy Leaders
Argentina
Francisco Galtieri
“My best WEC moment in 2014 would be my participation in the Cartagena Executive Assembly where we presented ‘The Knowledge Development Programme for Energy Leaders’ which received overwhelming support to expand it to other countries. It was very gratifying to see such results after one year of hard work.”
Ghana
Ghana
Kwaku Kunadu
“My most memorable part was the fact that my contribution on Ghana for the 2014 World Energy Trilemma report was accepted. I also really enjoyed and learned a lot from the discussions on the World Energy Trilemma - the myths and realities of financing energy systems.”
India
India
Juhi Rajput
“In 2014, my involvement in the Alternative Transport Fuel survey initiated by the FEL taskforce helped me to gain a better understanding of alternative transport fuels available in my country. It was exciting to discuss the project and motivate approximately 100 people from my professional and personal network to take the survey. Another interesting development was to explore the possibility of starting a national chapter for young energy executives with other Indian FELs.”
New Zealand
Nathan Bittle
Uruguay
Ana Karina Hernandez
“As a Future Energy Leader and active member of the ATF taskforce, the production and launch of the first ever FEL report was my best WEC- moment in 2014. The moment I felt that all of our hard work and dedication from last year was starting to pay dividends; having formal input into one of the WEC work streams, and having parts of our work showcased in Cartagena, Colombia, at the WEC Executive Assembly and the FEL Summit, was a marvellous achievement at personal and professional level.”
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Compiled by Sophie Rose, Coordinator, Future Energy Leaders
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