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Gerhard Schröder,
Former Chancellor of Germany and Chairman of the Energy Pact Conference
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Global challenges can only be met if country and continent boundaries are left
behind and joint action plans are implemented. For the European Union for
instance, energy security rests on three pillars: sustainability,
competitiveness and security of supply. All of these goals are of equal
importance and common challenges for both business leaders and politicians.
Above all, a global connected world needs a competitive infrastructure,
a sustainable energy mix, and secure energy supplies. But these efforts
are affected by two major challenges: climate change and the increasing
competition for fossil fuels. Changes to the climate represent a huge
threat since the social and ecological impact they make, have the potential
to disrupt geopolitical stability. They also represent an economic danger,
since the costs resulting from environmental damage are tremendous.
Therefore, the need for an international accord and an integrated approach
on energy, environment and development is high. The issues need to be addressed
today and an international platform such as the Energy Pact Conference provides
a forum to tackle the challenges together - 2009
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William S. Cohen,
Former US Secretary of Defense
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The new Obama administration will make combating global warming a top priority.
Indeed, there is a moral, environmental, economic and security imperative to
tackle climate change in a serious manner. The energy mix in the future must
also consider environmental and sustainable development constraints. These
issues will be fully developed during the energy Pact Conference in Geneva
in a unique, non-partisan multi-stakeholder setting.
The time to act is now - 2009
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Loren C. Cox,
Associate Director, Program Development, MIT Global Change Joint Program/CEEPR
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The current global financial turbulence likely will be with us for some time,
and will correctly claim the urgent attention of all global leaders. Absent
stability and trust in financial institutions at national, regional
and global levels, important goals in energy security, environmental
accords, and development initiatives may be delayed—but not abandoned.
The Energy Pact Conference can make a very useful contribution in
thinking how to order priorities in these three important areas and
thus lay the groundwork for more rapid progress when the global economy
regains its balance—and the resources--to address more completely these
complex but crucial matters - 2009
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Yves-Louis Darricarrère,
President, Total Exploration Production
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Our principal responsibility is to meet the demand for energy on a sustainable basis. That primarily
requires committing substantial capital expenditure and driving continuous innovation to grow our
oil and natural gas production, while ensuring the safety and security of our employees,
contractors and neighbours and constantly reducing our environmental footprint. But we are
also aware, like civil society, of the need to secure the longer-term future of energy. That’s
why we are deeply involved in renewable energies like biomass and solar energy. As an engaged
corporate citizen attuned to local aspirations, our core responsibility is to listen to our
stakeholders and then creatively devise mutually beneficial solutions. For Total, being responsible
means willingly facing up to the complex choices we must make, finding solutions to the
problems we encounter, demonstrating professional discipline and unbending ethical conduct,
delivering continuous improvements, informing, explaining, listening and dialoguing - 2009
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Mohamed ElBaradei,
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
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Two key challenges for energy policy include the establishment of a
comprehensive global approach, and to ensure innovation through
research and development. I have proposed working towards a new
global energy organization to build on existing structures, and I
welcome any steps that can be taken in that regard. Innovation across
all energy technologies is also vital given the ever growing needs
for "clean" energy - 2009
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Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo,
Ambassador of Brazil to the United Nations, Geneva
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A new paradigm connecting energy-development-environment comes forth
in the beginning of this century. As the growing world demand for energy
poses challenges for sustainable development and environmental governance,
renewable energy resources play a key role for the future of mankind.
The positive environmental effects of replacing fossil fuels for those often
called “green fuels”, for instance, constitute one of the strongest reasons
for their use worldwide. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been
personally engaged in advocating the economic, environmental and social
benefits of using such kind of energy sources, especially as regards to biofuels.
He presided last November, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, the “International Conference
on Biofuels: biofuels as a driving force of sustainable development”.
Brazil views biofuels as a means to promoting sustainable development
and making an important contribution towards addressing the global challenges
of combating poverty, ensuring energy security and reducing emissions
of greenhouse gases - 2009
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Sven M. Hansen,
Chief Investment Officer, Good Energies AG
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Despite measures to improve efficiency, energy consumption will
continue to increase steadily in the coming decades. The need to
source new, renewable energy supplies, and the challenge to address
global warming will be tremendous. The associated costs of these measures
will also impose substantial financial burdens: the numbers will be
stunning. Action has to be taken now, not just in the interest of our
planet, but also for solid economic reasons - 2009
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Robert Hensler,
Geneva State Chancellor
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Energy is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. It is at the heart of human development,
from the mastering of fire in the Stone Age to the mastering of the atom today. Yet,
energy is more and more a cause of friction and conflicts, on one hand, and of
impoverishment and inequality on the other. As energy consumption increases sharply,
states compete to capture a larger size of the world’s resources. The consequences can
be dire, as energy has ceased meaning oil or wind only, to also mean wheat, corn, sugar
cane, or even water. The ubiquity of energy is more pervasive today than ever.
In this context, there is a growing need for discussion and debate to define the path to
sustainable energy use, bearing in mind sustainability’s three dimensions, the social
the economic and the environmental one.
Geneva, home to numerous governmental and non-governmental organisations, notably in
the area of environmental protection (climate, conservation and development), as well
as a prime centre for oil and natural resource trading, is ideally placed to lead this
discussion. The presence in Geneva of most of the major United Nations agencies
and the ninety conservation and development organizations installed here provide a
fertile ground and a know-how on how to productively conduct high level meetings
such as the Energy Pact Conference - 2009
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David Hiler,
President of the Government of the Republic and State of Geneva
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We are extremely pleased and proud to host the first international Energy
Pact Conference in Geneva, especially since the local government is leading a very
active and ambitious policy regarding the environment. Indeed, over the last
few years the necessities of sustainable development have penetrated our main
political parties and have started playing a growing part in Geneva’s economy.
In the beginning of 2007, Geneva adopted the “2000-Watt Society” principle and
gave itself an energy-guiding plan. The plan contained innovative measures
regarding the quality of air, such as restricting traffic in the city centre.
In the medium term, we hope to recycle 50% of urban waste, 85% of construction
waste and 70% of the waste produced by the State. Geneva is also leading an
ambitious investment policy in the field of public transport; it is extensively
developing its tram lines and will soon have a cross-border regional train.
Furthermore, Geneva is developing an “eco-neighbourhood” project. These facts
are concrete evidence that economic and environment-related aspects in Geneva,
can be addressed together and in harmony - 2009
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Daniel Jaeggi,
Vice President of Mercuria Energy, and Head of Global Trading
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With crude oil prices so much lower than before, much needed investments
in infrastructure, tankage, transport, production and refining are being
delayed or cancelled. In addition, many energy sources that require investment
are no longer economic. Biofuels, new deep sea finds, and Canadian tar
sands are less attractive and in some cases completely uneconomic when
oil is less than $50 a barrel. Other green energy investments—such as
efforts to reduce carbon emissions—are also less viable, both politically
and economically, while oil remains cheap.
A second issue of concern is the lack of investment in maintaining and
developing existing oil fields. International oil companies—Exxon
Mobil, Total, BP, Shell and the like—which have the expertise and
technology to do this, are over time losing access to important fields
in many parts of the world, in favour of national oil companies. Since
the NOCs are relied upon by national treasuries as an important source
of revenue, however, they tend to be less able to make the necessary
investments to maintain and develop oil production.
These two worrying trends in the energy field need our attention. Both
undermine the effort to maintain a stable energy supply and prices, and
to meet growing demand in the future - 2009
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Ashok Khosla,
President of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and President of the Club of Rome
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The Economy versus Energy, Equity and the Environment: The Empowerment Dilemma
The spectacular improvements in our lives over the past two hundred years have not
come without cost. Close to one half of humanity (ten persons for every American)
lives outside the mainstream economy. In just about one hundred years, we have
used up close to half of the fossil fuels that took hundreds of millions of
years to accumulate. Mapping the spread of water scarce regions could keep
many cartographers busy full time. Dozens of species become extinct each
day. 50,000 Sq. Km of fertile land become deserts every year.
And our actions may well lead within a human lifetime to a deadly
change in the global climate and loss of our life support systems.
Rampant unemployment with accelerating inflation; rising prices and growing
scarcity of energy, water and materials; declining crops and widespread
hunger – these are the flip sides of many “successful” economies today,
no less in many industrialized countries of the North than in the low
income nations in the South. Few societies today have escaped the
widespread scourges of growing pollution, waste accumulation, social
alienation, drugs, terrorist threats and general insecurity.
There is growing evidence that all these symptoms of a planet suffering
form terminal disease come from the same basic causes: the consumption patterns
and production systems of our economies. Our present concepts of development
and modernity cannot be sustained for much longer.
If the global economy is to flourish and the benefits it brings are to continue
to reach everyone on the globe, now and in the future, the way we choose our
technologies, design our institutions and relate to nature will have to change
substantially.
Ashok Khosla presents half a century of experience from IUCN, the Club of
Rome and Development Alternatives, the first social enterprise to
address such issues in the Third World, and the lessons it offers for the
future of all - 2009
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Hans Jorgen Koch,
Deputy State Secretary, Ministry of Climate and Energy, Denmark
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The time is limited to limit the consequences of climate change. The IPCC has made
it clear: We have to halve our emissions in 40 years and the emissions need to peak
within the next ten years. Denmark is hosting the 15th UN climate change conference
(COP15) in December 2009. COP15 is crucial for the international climate change negotiations.
The parties to the Climate Change Convention agreed at COP13 in Bali in December 2007 that
negotiations on a future agreement have to be concluded at COP15 in Copenhagen. The Danish
Governments goal is that COP15 will result in an ambitious global agreement that includes
all countries of the world and which sets ambitious targets for reducing global greenhouse
gas emissions. Ministers from over 170 countries are expected to participate in COP15 - 2009
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Carlos Lopes,
Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research
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The growing demand for and production of energy in developing countries
with high rates of economic growth is creating unprecedented challenges
for ensuring equitable socio-economic development and environmental
sustainability. New modes of governance, knowledge transfer and
capacity development are warranted to develop innovative, context
specific and sustainable solutions. The Energy Pact Conference
creates a valuable opportunity for stakeholders to address the future
challenge of making energy, development, and environment needs
mutually compatible - 2009
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Prof. Urs Luterbacher,
Chairman Environmental Studies Unit, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
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Evoking the three major dimensions of today’s global crisis, the international
financial problems and the world economy, climate change, and the related energy
questions seems almost banal these days. Nevertheless behind the apparent banality
there is a real sense of urgency as the potential positive feedback between theses
three issues could create major disruptions and change significantly for the worse,
the world as we know it. However, even this conjunction of crises can lead to what
the famous economist Schumpeter has called creative destruction not just at the
level of finance and business but also at the institutional and political level.
The power of retrograde industrial lobbies can be broken as governments and international
institutions can take on new roles of lenders of last resort, which shifts the balance
of power toward them. We have to remember that some of the most significant international
institutions of the last half-century were created and conceived in the midst of the
chaos of World War II. The world seems to be now again at a crossroad were it can either
move into the direction of increased international collaboration, the only way to solve
the tremendous problems facing us, or retreat into localism and parochialism.
The challenges are daunting: Energy consumption has risen exponentially since the
industrial revolution 250 years ago and it continues to rise today and will be
probably only slowed down temporarily by the current economic crises. The world
energy use grew by 2.7% during 2005. This increase is constituted mainly by a rise
in oil consumption of 1.7%, a rise in natural gas of 2.4% and especially a rise in
coal consumption of 5%. This latter figure is in some sense especially alarming
because it signals a shift from oil and gas to coal because of its lower relative
price and great availability in particular in emerging countries such as India
and China.
This is preoccupying as coal produces more CO2 than the other fossil fuels.
The rise in energy consumption is undoubtedly going to continue throughout the
coming century, mainly because of the increasing industrialization of the
developing countries. Indeed, the distribution of this energy per capita is highly
uneven throughout the world. For example, the United States, France or Germany,
which are all considered to be developed countries, represent respectively only
about 5%, 0.9% and 1.4% of the total world population but account for 24%, 3% and 4% of
the world’s energy use. Even if the United States is the most extreme example, it is
clear that developed countries in general consume more energy per capita than
the developing countries. Equating energy usage per capita throughout the world
will greatly increase demand. If extreme climate change is to be avoided, such
developments will have to take place with new technologies less or better completely
independent of fossil fuels. But energy use through fossil fuels is not the only
source of global warming. Agricultural production accounts also for a significant
part of it: Directly through specific cultivation and animal raising practices
and indirectly by contributing to deforestation. Since the world population is
bound to increase to perhaps eight to nine billion people within the next decade,
agriculture will have the task of providing food for this additional amount of
people without contributing to increase greenhouse gases.
In order to resolve these issues among many others, international cooperation
has to increase by leaps and bounds: New international institutions will probably
have to be created, old ones modified to a considerable degree. Transfers of wealth
and technologies to developing areas will have to be organized in order to assure
global participation in the struggle against climate change. Finally, new technologies
have to be invented and put to work. The task is huge but by no means impossible to
achieve. It will only succeed if more efforts are made toward collaboration through
painstaking discussions and bargaining processes in order to achieve workable consensus
based agreements. The decentralized nature of the international system precludes any
solutions imposed from the top. The energy pact conference constitutes a first step
in this direction through discussions and dialogue between participants from many
countries and across sectors from political decision makers to academics, businessmen
and industrialists. One can only wish it full success - 2009
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Bertrand Piccard,
Chairman of Solar Impulse
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Since the establishment of the Red Cross movement by Henry Dunant,
Geneva has always been at the forefront of mankind efforts to solve
stringent international issues. It therefore does not come as a
surprise that Geneva is launching the Energy Pact Conference to
bring its contribution to today’s' most pressing challenge, the
energy use and sources. It is my conviction that innovative
solutions will arise from this meeting - as it always happens
in Geneva - 2009
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Hans B. Püttgen,
Professor and Director, Energy Center, EPFL
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The ubiquitous availability of inexpensive, clean and reliable energy supplies is
an absolute requirement for sustained development. This is especially true in
regions with emerging economies where the massive demands to additional energy must
be met while avoiding long-lasting environmental impacts. At the same time,
industrialized countries must intensify their quest toward a more energy
consumption pattern - 2009
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Dr Gary N. Ross,
Chief Executive Officer, PIRA Energy Group
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Sustainable economic development while at the same time providing prosperity and social
welfare will require equitably-priced energy in an environmentally friendly manner.
This is the challenge the world faces and it requires both producers and
consumers to take an active interest - 2009
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Carlo Rubbia,
Nobel laureate, Physics 1984
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Since the day I was born, the world population has increased by nearly a factor four
and the primary energy consumption by more than a factor ten. The quest for a
sustainable development and the necessity of curbing global warming are amongst the
greatest challenges for the future of mankind and have a major social, economic and
environmental impact. A great effort in research and development is urgently needed.
Industries and governments should, even in these difficult times, strongly support
the scientific community that can contribute to truly innovative solutions - 2009
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Robert N. Stavins,
Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program
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The nations of the world confront a tremendous challenge in designing and
implementing an effective and sensible international policy response
to the threat of global climate change — a response that is scientifically
sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic.
The relatively wealthy, developed countries are responsible for
a majority of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) that
have already accumulated in the atmosphere, but developing
countries will emit more GHGs over this century than the currently
industrialized nations if no efforts are taken to alter their course
of development. The architecture of a robust international climate change
policy will need to take into account the many dimensions and consequences
of this issue with respect to the environment, the economy, energy, and development - 2009
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Mostafa K.Tolba,
President, International Centre for Environment and Development (ICED) - Former Executive Director - United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP )
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The environment is a complicated dynamic system, with many interacting components.
Our Knowledge of these components, of the interactions between them, and of the
relationship between people, resources, environment and development has
undergone profound evolution over the past two decades. We now realize
that unless development is guided by environmental, social, cultural and
ethical considerations, much of it will continue to have undesired
effects, to provide reduced benefits or even fail altogether.
Such "Unsustainable" development will only exacerbate the environmental
problems that already exist. We all must come to terms with the reality
of resource limitations and the carrying capacities of ecosystems. We must
pursue plans that would not lead to conflicts over such limited resources
and that would lead to sustainable development that meets the needs of the
present generation without compromising the ability of future generations
to satisfy theirs - 2009
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Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker,
Co-Chair, International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, Germany
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Lifting a ten kilograms weight from the sea level to the top of Mont Blanc requires
roughly one seventh of a kilowatthour. This simple calculation indicates that
we are wasting energy no end. Technically, there is scope for increasing energy
productivity tenfold, or more. Why is it not done? Because it's not profitable
under the conditions of today's low energy prices. It's like with human labour.
Under the conditions of slavery or indecently low wages, investors would have
shun robotics. Second in priority is renewable energy. The German feed-in
tariffs have shown the way - 2009
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Robert F. Blum,
President & Founder, Le Cercle diplomatique de Genève
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The Energy Pact Conference aims to create in Geneva a platform for reflection and
exchange which integrates the issues of energy, the environment and development. This
multi-stakeholder conference will bring together for the first time high-level participants
from different horizons and different cultures. The aim of Geneva’s Cercle Diplomatique is to
create special links between diplomats, civil servants, and the Swiss and international civil
society. Therefore, it is only logical that the Cercle supports the Energy Pact Conference.
Only through a non-partisan dialogue between men of goodwill can we make our way together
towards a world which is fairer, more humane, and safer for each and every one of us - 2009
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