Energy security and international relations
On 16 February, the Federal Foreign Office and the Veranstaltungsforum der Vertragsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck (Events Forum of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group) will welcome participants to Berlin for a conference entitled "International energy policy – global thinking, responsible design", the first of a three-part series of conferences on energy issues.
In recent years, energy security has become a major topic on the international agenda. The recent dispute between Russia and Belarus and the ensuing interruption in oil supplies to Europe brought the issue into sharp focus once again. These developments are accompanied by alarming news about climate change. It is therefore not surprising that Germany has made energy and climate policy a central topic of both its EU and G8 Presidencies.
Discussions in the first of the three conferences are to focus on how cooperative strategies to secure global energy supplies can best be formed. Participants should also try to come up with some answers to the urgent questions of climate change.
Foreign Minister Steinmeier will open the event with a lecture on the subject "Cooperative strategies to secure the global energy supply". Other discussion participants will include Jeremy R. Rifkin (President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Washington) and Claude Mandil (Executive Director of the International Energy Agency IEA).
The second two events in the series will deal with the questions "Energy of the future: Intelligent alternatives or competition for scarce resources?" and "Energy markets of the future: International and open, or bilateral and nationally controlled?".
Details of the programme can be found on the following website:
Last updated 14.02.2007
