São Paulo – The 2012 World Energy Forum starts this Monday (22nd) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One of the goals of the event is to discuss sustainable energies which may drive the world economy while promoting social development, according to information from the forum’s website.
The event, which will continue until Wednesday (24th), will be held outside the United Nations (UN) headquarters, in New York, United States, for the first time. The UN has declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates vice president and prime minister and emir of Dubai, is the patron of the Forum, which has over 2,000 participants, including heads of state, Energy ministers, and industry executives.
Leading names who will be in attendance include Harold Hyunsuk Oh, president and chairman of the World Energy Forum; Leonid Bokhanovsky, secretary general of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum; Majid H. Jafar, CEO, Crescent Petroleum; Eric P. Loewen, of General Electric and former president of the American Nuclear Society; and Alexander V. Bychkov, the deputy director general and Nuclear Energy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The forum will also be attended by ministers of Energy or Petroleum and Gas from India, Oman, Emirates, Indonesia, Iraq, Algeria, Qatar, Iran, Thailand, Guatemala, Jordan, Yemen, Libya, Madagascar, Mexico, Cameroon and Mozambique. The ministers will participate in roundtables on fossil fuels, green economy, alternative energy, electricity, energy efficiency, and public-private partnerships.
The executives will integrate panels on regulation and investment policies; integrated urban planning; climate change, environment and green technology promotion; energy financing; oil, gas, coal, nuclear energy and renewable energy.
On the 23rd, the forum will promote a parallel meeting focusing on the role of women in energy and water issues, how these factors affect their quality of living, and the importance of women to sustainable development.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
