Energy: The Challenges for Environment and Security
Click here to download speaker biographies
Downloadable presentations from certain sessions are available below after Session 4.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Opening Session
19H00 Welcome dinner at the Italian Embassy
Thurday, October 1, 2009
Les salons France-Amériques
Welcome address by John Wolf, Eisenhower Fellowships President, and the European Fellows
Session 1: Consumption vs Climate Change: The New Challenges
- Claude Allègre, Former French Minister of Education and Research, geologist and writer
There is no absolute truth on climate change and there are diverging opinions (a cause for worry) on what the right priorities are. Is there still time for debate or is it too late already? Claude Allègre‘s presentation will illustrate one of the two meanings of the word “security”: will we leave a safe world for the coming generations? What challenges will they have to take up?
Session 2: Europe's Energy Vulnerability: Lessons from the Russion-Ukrainian Episode
Session hosted by François Roche, journalist, writer and specialist of central Asia
With the participation of:
- Kimball Chen, CEO of ETG Companies (Energy Transportation Group)
- Carlo Tamburi, Enel International Managing Director
In a way this session is symmetrical to the first one and should highlight the “safety” side of the energy challenge. The last Russian-Ukrainian episode reminded the international community of the great sensitivity of supply issues, with Russia as a major provider. European vulnerability against Russian gas leadership is a serious strategic issue, with the Russians appearing determined to dominate the international gas market. Last December the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was organized in Moscow, and it brought together the world leading gas producers. This event was an opportunity for Mr. Vladimir Putin to claim that it was the end of “cheap” gas... Challenging Russia on any subject could prove dangerous for European supply sustainability. The Russian-Ukrainian story is a case study and should lead to a more general reflection on the geopolitical aspects of the energy issues at stake.
Session 3: The International Energy Agency Vision
Session introduced by Anne Swardson ('89 European Union) Editor-at-large, Bloomberg News, Paris
- Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an inter-governmental organization which acts as energy policy advisor to its 28 member countries in their effort to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for their citizens. Founded during the oil crisis of 1973-1974, the IEA’s initial role was to coordinate measures in times of oil supply emergencies. As energy markets have changed, so has the IEA. Its mandate has broadened to incorporate the “Three E’s” of balanced energy policy making: energy security, economic development and environmental protection. Current work focuses on climate change policies, market reform, energy technology collaboration and outreach to the rest of the world, especially major consumers and producers of energy like China, India, Russia and the OPEC countries. The International Energy Agency has just organized (24, 25 of September 2009) the Energy Community Oil Forum in Belgrade. In this session it will be interesting to react to and comment what the contributors of the previous session will have said.
Session 4: Producer/Consumer Perspectives on Fossil Energies
Session hosted by Anne Swardson ('89 European Union) Editor-at-large, Bloomberg News, Paris
With the participation of:
- Ashok Belani, Chief Technology Officer, Schlumberger
- James C. (Jim) Davis, President of Chevron Energy Solutions
- Dr Muhammad Al-Saggaf ('09 Saudi Arabia), Manager, EXPEC Advanced Research Center, Saudi Aramco
- Zhu Yue Zhong ('09 China), Director, Research Management and International Collaborative Division, Energy Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission, China [Click to download presentation]
If fossil energy flows were to be interrupted, cars and trucks would be forced to stop, planes would be pinned to the ground and ships hung up in ports… not to mention the millions of people who would be deprived of electricity and operational heating system and so much more… Consumer countries' dependence towards producers increases continually. How can we reduce the dependence on oil? On gas? From the producers’ point of view what is the fair price for these resources? What quantities should be delivered? To whom? Does anybody know how much longer fossil energies will last? At what economic cost (investments)? At what ecological cost (digging under the Chilean and Alaskan glaciers)? We are used to looking separately at the consumers’ and producers’ positions. It will be interesting to see if the speakers can come up with a balanced and challenging view of things.
Session 5: Video Presentation of the ITER Project
Session introduced by Anne Swardson ('89 European Union) Editor-at-large, Bloomberg News, Paris
Session 6: Is Nuclear Energy an Answer?
Session introduced by Anne Swardson ('89 European Union) Editor-at-large, Bloomberg News, Paris
Opening speech: Luis Echávarri, Director-General of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency [Click to download presentation]
Round table:
- Bernard Bigot, Chairman, French Atomic Energy Agency
- Sergio Orlandi, General Manager, Chief operating officer for Ansaldo NUCLEARE SPA [Click to download presentation]
- Matthias Ruete, Director General of Energy and Transportation, European Commission, TBC
Consumers countries' dependence towards the oil producers being a fact, is nuclear energy a good way toward independence? Is it the only one? Is it too expensive? Too dangerous? And, what about the future nuclear generation? Are breeder reactors and nuclear fusion an alternative to fossil energy? The respective positions of the United States and Europe on the nuclear issue highlight the pros and cons, which are as much contradictions as clues to the question “is nuclear energy an answer?”…
Session 7: Opening Dinner at the French Senate
Sustainable Development and Regulations in Our Global World
- Luc Ferry, Philosopher [Click to download presentation]
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Paris Chamber of Commerce
Welcome address by Pierre Simon, President of the Paris Chamber of Commerce
Session 8: Facing Climate Change
Opening speech: Robert Kandel, Emeritus Senior Researcher, CNRS [Click to download presentation]
Round table:
- Dr Martin Blake, Head of Sustainability at the British Royal Mail
- Richard Gledhill, Head of Climate Change, Price-Waterhouse Coopers
- With video message from Minister Jacqueline Cramer ('92 Netherlands), Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment
[Click to download remarks]
In the shade of the “Hubbert peak” theory’s preoccupations (that signals a production peak after which fuel production will decline), are climate changes underestimated? Are the interactions between both phenomena taken into account while building responses for the future? In the face of the antagonism between the United States and Europe on the Kyoto Protocol issue, can we seriously claim efficiency against climate change?
Session 9: Renewable Energy Sources: A Light at the End of the Tunnel?
- Xabier Viteri, CEO of Iberdrola Renovables [Click to download presentation]
- Hans Joachim Reck ('88 Germany), General Director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VkU) [Click to download presentation]
- Luciano Piacenti, Chief of the Division, Industry, Environment and Energy, of ACEA [Click to download presentation]
The question is to know whether renewable energy represents a real progress or not? Where do we stand now? This session will try to highlight to what extent the current ratio between fossil and renewable energies can be reversed.
EF Day Lunch
Sponsored by ACE Charitable Foundation
- David Furby, ACE, President of Continental Europe
With intervention from John Wolf, President of the Eisenhower Fellowships, Jean Davis (’05 USA), Sam Thenya (’08 Kenya), Dan Soncgo (’99 Philippines) and Giuseppe Cassano (’67 Italy) [Click here to download Guiseppe Cassano's remarks]
Session 10: Today is Tomorrow: The “Negawatt”/Smartgrid Concepts
- David Menga, EDF Research Department
- Stéphane Riot, NovaTerra, Directeur
- Marc Jalabert, Director of Operations for Microsoft France [Click to download presentation]
- Martin Vesper, Executive Director, Yello Strom GmbH; Germany
- Elodie Renaud, Total, in charge of solar energy development
“Today is tomorrow”…. because we are more than ever in charge of our own future. Beyond renewable energies, the “negawatt” and “smartgrid” concepts are solutions that deserve to be considered as ways to alleviate energy over-consumption and environmental destruction. Intel, Google and General Electric have already experimented with “smart grids”…President Obama has already invested 11 million dollars in the concept…. How valid/efficient are these concepts? The time issue is crucial: today’s technologies were invented 50 years ago. What are we doing now that will contribute to a better life for our grandchildren’s generation?
Session 11: Closing speech: The Big Picture, Connected with the Crisis Issues
- Jean Marie Chevalier, Professor of economics at the University of Paris Dauphine, Director of the Centre de Géopolitique de l’Energie et des Matières Premières (CGEMP), France. He is also Senior Associate at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS-CERA)
[Click to download presentation]
The hope of the Working Group and Organizing Committee of the Eisenhower European Conference on the Challenges for Environment and Security is that participants will go home with new ideas, new lights, new openings, new informations and new reflections to eventually double-reconsider in new terms and with new words all these problems, which are of paramount importance for our future and the lives of generations to come. This session will bring out the economic implications, open up on new possibilities and solutions and most probably will raise more questions for the participants to bring back to their countries when leaving Paris…
Session 12: Wrapping Up
- Jim Hovey, Vice Chairman, Eisenhower Fellowships, and European Fellows
Session 13: Closing Dinner on the Seine
- Christie Todd Whitman, Former Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Chairman, Eisenhower Fellowships Executive Committee