World Energy Leaders’ Dialogue to start in Abu Dhabi

The WEC will be holding its inaugural World Energy Leaders’ Dialogue next Tuesday (21 January) in Abu Dhabi, the UAE.

The event will be co-hosted by H. E. Suhail Al Mazrouei, the UAE Minister of Energy, and Marie-José Nadeau, WEC Chair.

The WEC expects that its Dialogue events will provide a more frequent, regionally focused platform than its more established twice-yearly World Energy Leaders’ Summits.

 

 

The event will continue to be held in a roundtable setting, where participants can address critical issues in an interactive and informal peer-to-peer dialogue. Session summaries will not contain attributed quotes unless with the explicit agreement of the contributor to encourage an open exchange.

The Abu Dhabi Dialogue will have three sessions centred on the theme, “balancing the trilemma and rethinking resilience”.

It will open with welcoming addresses from the co-hosts, followed by a trilemma ministerial dialogue which will focus on the challenges to balance the trilemma and sharing some key the success stories from around the world.

The second session will explore how energy infrastructures can become more resilient to risks. These risks, such as unpredictable weather patterns, growing challenges of the energy–water nexus, security and geopolitical risks, the increasingly active role of public opinion, and cyber threats, have become the “new normal” in the energy sector. The session, building on the discussion at the 22nd World Energy Congress, will look at these challenges in the context of the energy trilemma, with a special focus on the Middle East and the impact on policies.

The third session will cover unconventionals and their impact on the Middle East’s energy landscape. It will look whether the shale gas revolution has undermined the business case for renewables, and how Middle East gas producers can stay competitive to avoid losing out to the rise in unconventionals.

About 60 high-level participants from more than 20 countries in six world regions are confirmed to attend. They include 10 ministers or ministerial representatives, leaders of major companies such as Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Mudadala Petroleum, Statoil, leaders of renewables companies such as Vestas, plus experts from the finance sector and civil society.

 

 

The event will be held during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week during which Marie-José Nadeau, WEC Chair, has been invited to address the opening plenary of the World Future Energy Summit.

The WEC will hold similar Dialogue events during the year in addition to its regular World Energy Leaders’ Summits. After Abu Dhabi, the next World Energy Leaders’ Dialogue will take place during the African Energy Indaba in Johannesburg. It is hoped that these meetings with complement the WEC’s regional and national events to increase the visibility and impact of the World Energy Council while the high-level discussions will help to further inform the WEC’s studies.