The energy prospects that confront the South are significantly different from those that prevailed when the North embarked on its economic expansion in the nineteenth century. The South has to follow a development path that places a far greater emphasis on energy efficiency, energy security and safety and environmental impact. The UNCTAD-EnergyPact Conference is a timely effort to explore the implications of this imperative.

Title: Energy Futures-Constraint or Opportunity

The energy prospects that confront the South in the next phase of development will be constrained by rising costs and growing scarcities of fossil fuels and by rising diplomatic pressures for the mitigation of climate change. This constraint can also be an opportunity for the South to step into the space for innovation that can redress the historical imbalance in technological leadership that has led to relationships of dependence.

Mr. Nitin Desai, a graduate of LSE, taught economics at two UK universities, worked briefly in the private sector, had a long stint as a government official in India, and then joined the UN in 1990. In India, he was in the Planning Commission (1973–88) and later in the Ministry of Finance as the Chief Economic Adviser (1988–90). In the UN, where he was Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, his major work was the organization of a series of global summits, notably the Rio Earth Summit (1992), the Copenhagen Social Development Summit (1995), the Monterrey Finance and Development Summit (2002), and the Johannesburg Sustainable Development Summit (2002). After his retirement, he has been involved in a variety of public policy activities nationally and internationally. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. He is associated with many national and international NGOs and Research institutions.

Supachai Panitchpakdi began his second four-year term as Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 1 September 2009, following his unanimous confirmation by the UN General Assembly.

Born in Bangkok, Dr. Supachai attended school there before receiving his Master's Degree in Econometrics, Development Planning and his Ph.D. in Economic Planning and Development at the Netherlands School of Economics (now known as Erasmus University) in Rotterdam.

In 1973, Dr. Supachai completed his doctoral dissertation on Human Resource Planning and Development under the supervision of Prof. Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel laureate in economics.

Dr. Supachai began his professional career at the Bank of Thailand in 1974, and in 1986 was elected to the Thai Parliament and appointed Deputy Minister of Finance. In 1988, he was appointed Director and Advisor, and subsequently President, of the Thai Military Bank. In 1992, Dr. Supachai was appointed Senator, and that same year he became Deputy Prime Minister, entrusted with oversight of the country's economic and trade policy-making. In 2001, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne. He has published a number of books, including Globalization and Trade in the New Millennium (2001) and China and WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade (2002, co-authored with Mark Clifford).

Dr. Supachai previously served as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (September 2002 to August 2005).

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian history and the Director of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is the author of eleven books, including two that were chosen by the Village Voice as the top 25 books of the year, Karma of Brown Folk (2000) and Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity (2001). His most recent book, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (New Press, 2008) won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Award of 2009.
In 2012, he will release five books: Uncle Swami (New Press), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso), Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK Press), [edited with Qalandar Memon and Madiha Tahir] Dispatches from Pakistan (LeftWord) and [edited with Paul Amar] Dispatches from the Arab Revolt (LeftWord). The last two are part of a series, the first volume of which was Dispatches from Latin America, edited with Teo Ballvé. He writes regularly for Frontline (India), Himal (Nepal), Bol (Pakistan), and Counterpunch (web).
He is Vice Chair of the Board of the National Priorities Project, and an active participant in the United National Anti-War Committee.

Robero Savio is an Italian-Argentinean economist, who dedicated himself to communication for better international relations. He did create several organizations, the largest being Inter Press Service, now the 4th world largest, in 1964. He has been Secretary General of the Society for International Development, and he also founded TIPS, the largest UNDP project for South-South cooperation.
He is one of the founders of the World Social Forum and the World Political Forum. He has worked in several UN organizations and as adviser with several countries of Latin America and Africa. He is presently acting in the global civil society.

The world’s energy matrix is probably the main strategic issue of the 21st century. There will be no progress in the fight against hunger and poverty, and no way of keeping acceptable welfare standards without sustainable economic growth. And this will not be possible without a huge revolution on the way we produce and consume energy. The emerging economies of the South, with their dynamic growth rates and growing energy consumption are part of the problem. But they can – and will – be part of the solution. This conference is a timely event in this moment of crisis and opportunities where the search for new ideas and paradigms has become an urgent task.

Professor at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). President of the Advisory Board of EUBrasil Association (Brussels). Member of the Board of Trustees of UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research). Senior Research Fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU-ISS – Paris). Former Director of the Mercosur Chair of Sciences Po and former Coordinator of the Working Group on EU-Mercosur Negotiations and of the International Conference of Forte Copacabana on “Defense and Security European-South American Dialogue”.
Journalist, columnist for Radio France International (RFI), he contributes regularly to CBN and BANDNEWS (Brazil). Former diplomatic and defense correspondent for the daily Libération (France). Member of the Editorial Board of the review Economia (Morocco). Founder and former member of the Editorial Board of the economic and geopolitical yearbook L’Etat du Monde (France).
He organizes and participates regularly in high-level conferences and workshops on international trade, regional integration, global diplomacy and security, Brazil and Latin America affairs. He has published extensively on these subjects.