Recently in Summits and Meetings Category

Tony Blair joins Senators Bingaman, McCain, Snowe and Stabenow on Capitol Hill for Climate event. Senators, Governors, business leaders and international experts met in the Capitol today to discuss the prospects for U.S. domestic action on climate change.

Many of the participants stressed that action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should not be delayed by the global economic downturn because it provides an opportunity to lay the foundations for a sustainable recovery based on low-carbon growth.

The symposium, "U.S. Climate Action: A Global Economic Perspective" was convened by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), John McCain (R-AZ), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

During the opening session, the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, argued that the leading economic powers around the world now understand the significant risks of climate change and appreciate that the best way to minimize the dangers is by investing in a low-carbon economy.

Mr. Blair said that the U.S. can send an important signal to the world about the importance they place on tackling global climate change through the progress it makes on its domestic climate policy over the next few months.

Senator Bingaman said "Today's bipartisan gathering of leaders to discuss how to move climate policy forward in the current economic crisis is constructive. A responsibly-designed national climate policy will create economic opportunities and jobs and spur investment in low-carbon technologies that will make U.S. businesses more competitive. The costs of climate policy can be mitigated with the right policy measures, and we need to move ahead with both energy policies and a national cap and trade program to sustain these investments."

"This was a great meeting where we discussed the key issues surrounding climate change policy with international leaders, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have already gained valuable insight on how such policies may affect manufacturing and economic opportunities," said Senator Stabenow. "For me, the bottom-line of any future climate change bill must be jobs. Climate policy can help re-build the middle class and create jobs in states like Michigan where we have the manufacturing base and engineering know-how to produce the new technology that will be needed. I intend to keep jobs and common sense at the top of the list of considerations as the climate policy discussion continues."

Governors Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia provided their perspectives on the impact of climate policy on regional competitiveness, particularly with respect to impacts on U.S. jobs. Governor Doyle said "Global warming demands aggressive action at the international, national, state, local and individual levels. By combining Wisconsin's knowledge, skills and resources with those of our global neighbors, we can develop the solutions necessary for a clean energy future. The environmental and economic consequences of climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels affect everyone, and working together we will be able to generate new technologies, new businesses, new jobs for our citizens, and a cleaner and safer world for generations to come."

"In Michigan our top priority is growing the economy and creating jobs and that is why comprehensive climate change legislation is important to our state," said Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. "Not only will this legislation advance clean energy technologies that reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, it will create millions of new green jobs, and protect our natural resources and that is critical for a state like Michigan that has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs."

There was strong agreement about the importance of boosting economic growth and combating climate change at the same time, and participants recognized that low-carbon investments will not only be good for jobs and economic recovery but will also improve the country's energy security and begin to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

John Chambers of Cisco, Jeff Immelt of GE, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and Jim Rogers of Duke Energy, provided perspectives from business. Jim Rogers said "I have long been a supporter of enacting climate legislation because it will take decades to slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gas emissions. However, the 100 percent auction contained in the President's budget will unnecessarily punish the 25 states that get the majority of their electricity from coal. That represents nothing more than a tax and a wealth transfer, and it has nothing to do with meeting our environmental challenges. Congress needs to enact climate change legislation, but they also must get it right."

International policymakers, Ed Miliband, Connie Hedegaard and Tony Blair said that strong U.S. action on climate would galvanize further action across the world. Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the highly influential report "The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review" in 2006, said: "The U.S. has a real opportunity to take a lead given the creativity of its entrepreneurs and its technical talents."

Lord Stern added: "Low carbon growth is the only growth story, because high carbon growth would eventually choke itself off. The world would react strongly to an America lead as we go forward to build an international deal at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year."

Nobel Prize winning U.S. economist Professor Joe Stiglitz agreed, stating that "Countries around the world have been waiting for the U.S. to take leadership but they have not been sitting idle. Many countries have set out domestic plans of action on reducing their emissions. It is now the turn of the U.S. to use its power of example to motivate key countries to work together and find a global solution to this global problem."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's climate envoy, Todd Stern, addressed the group on the discussions he has conducted to date with international policymakers on the importance of global collaboration ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.

The event was organized by three leading Washington think tanks, the Center for Global Development (CGD), the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the World Resources Institute (WRI), together with the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which is chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern.

About the Partners

1. The Center for Global Development is an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change in the United States and other rich countries through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. www.cgdev.org

2. The Peterson Institute for International Economics is the only research institution in the United States devoted to global economic issues. It was recently rated "Top Think Tank in the World" by the first comprehensive survey of more than 5000 such institutions in all countries. www.petersoninstitute.org

3. The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. www.wri.org

4. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment was established in 2008 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Institute brings together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy to establish a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training in climate change and the environment. It is funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. www.lse.ac.uk/grantham

SOURCE Center for Global Development

The Nuclear Energy Conference began on a tough note on Monday in Abu Dhabi with a strong emphasis being placed on the disarmament of Iran. The other theme of the conference was the need for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in the UAE and other countries in that region.
Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs delivered the key note addressed and stressed on the future need for nuclear energy and the country's commitment to the peaceful use of energy. He focussed on the importance of nuclear energy to tide over the shortfall that the country would face in the future.
The conference will be held for three days at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. Prominent guest speakers at the conference include United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix who travelled to Iraq in 2003 to investigate America's claim of Weapons of Mass Destruction and David Miliband, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

At the G-8 summit in Russia, President Bush and Prseident Putin announced that they would cooperate in the rapid expansion of nuclear energy worldwide. The Bush government feels that the future energy security of the US depends on increasing reliance on nuclear energy and the agreement with Russia was the latest in a long line of initiatives to promote nuclear power.

A technology that brought about the horrific Chernobyl meltdown and the Three Mile island accident and that lay for years in scientific purgatory has been resurrected in today's high oil prices age by a well planned public relations campaign touting it as the energy of choice.
While PM Tony Blair, famed scientist Sir James Lovelock and even some environmentalists have jumped on the nuclear power bandwagon, a sober look at the consequences of re-nuclearizing the world needs to be taken.

The first consideration is the high cost of setting up nuclear power plants. With a minimum price tag of $2 billion each, the plants are 50 percent more expensive than coal-fired power plants up and far more expensive than new gas-fired power plants. The cost of doubling nuclear power's current 20 percent share of US electricity generation could well exceed half a trillion dollars.
With the country facing record consumer and government debt, the idea of nuclear power generation is well nigh unaffordable.

Secondly, the safe transport, disposal or storage of nuclear waste is still an unsolved matter for our scientists. A vault that cost the government $8 billion and 20 years to build is supposed to be an airtight, underground burial tomb dug deep to hold radioactive materials. It's supposed to be leak free for 10,000 years but the Environmental Protection Agency already suspects that the storage facility will leak.

Thirdly, an International Atomic Energy Agency study shows that uranium resources could fail to meet demand as early as 2026. Discovery of new deposits or technological breakthroughs that reduce uranium requirements are possibilities but as of now they are speculative.

Fourthly, nuclear power plants are the ultimate soft target for terrorist attacks. On the one hand, the US is worried that Iran might use enriched uranium from its nuclear power plants for a bomb. On the other hand it is advocating nuclear power all over the world. This would mean uranium and spent nuclear waste in transit everywhere and piling up in makeshift facilities, often close to populated urban areas.

In 2005, the Australian government foiled a terrorist attack on its single nuclear power plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that more than half of the nuclear power plants in this country failed to prevent a simulated attack on their facilities!

Finally, nuclear power seems old fashioned and obsolete in today's age when distributed technologies are undermining hierarchies, decentralizing power and giving rise to networks and open-source economic models. These technologies are also giving people the chance to become active participants while nuclear power will be controlled by a few.

An aggressive effort to bring the full range of decentralized renewable technologies online: solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass needs to be brought online. Hydrogen storage infrastructure is required to ensure a steady supply for electricity and transportation.

The future lies with the sun and not with uranium.

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Iran said that it is ready to consider a temporary freeze in uranium enrichment on the assurance that it would not be attacked by the United States during negotiations with the 6 world powers on enrichment and other nuclear issues.

The progress was welcomed by top US envoys but the UN Security Council is expected to go ahead with sanctions if Tehran does not halt enrichment.
IAEA Chief, El Baradei, said that "the window of oppurtinity is not very long" - an implicit warning that the standoff was on the brink of escalating.

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Key European nations warned that Iran is trying to split up the international community over its contentious nuclear program by stalling and giving unclear responses to the terms set by world powers for negotiations.

A closed meeting was held in Berlin of the 5 UN Security Council nations plus Germany to coordinate strategy over Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Javier Solona, the EU's foreign policy chief, is expected to hold nuclear talks with Iranian envoy Ali Larijani on Saturday in a final effort to find common ground for negotiations between Iran and the 6 powers.
Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, said that the Saturday meeting is not likely to resolve the disagreement over the scope and agenda of the broader negotiations.
Britain's UN ambassador said that "unless Solana is able to get Iranian movement on suspension of enrichment quickly, then the prospect of sanctions against Iran will be on the (Security) Council agenda soon.”
He also said that the 6 powers agree on the ultimate goal of denying Iran nuclear weapons and the strategy.

The assessment of Iran's response to incentives from the Western powers was a one and a half page document labeled "In Confidence". It summarized the technical, economic and political rewards offered to Iran and warned of punishments including UN sanctions if Tehran doesn't halt uranium enrichment.
Though Iran's response has been kept confidential, US and its allies have described it as inadequate and a document drawn up by Britain, France and Germany highlights that the Iranian response is along previous lines in that it neither accepts nor rejects outright.

Iran's goal is thought to be to involve the international community in talks about talks while continuing on its enrichment program. Its unyielding stance appears to be powered by the belief that China and Russia, both veto-wielding Security Council members will oppose the sanctions.
Besides Iran's no suspension before negotiation stance, it has also demanded the "termination" of Security Council involvement in its nuclear file.
While Iran continues to insist that its enrichment program is for generation of nuclear power, the Western powers are focused on imposing sanctions following the deadline.

Russia averred that any sanctions must exclude military force giving rise to the opinion that Moscow was contemplating the possibility of sanctions. The US and European diplomats have said that initially they will use low-level punishments such as travel bans and bans on the sale of dual-use technology to get backing from Russia and China.

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It is widely expected that the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Monday will call for production to remain at current levels. An $11 drop in prices since the Lebanon cease fire may encourage some to push for cuts further out.
OPEC production is at the highest level since 1979 to cushion against supply shocks. The Saudi-driven policy has succeeded with refiners storing away OPEC crude.
Though oil has dropped from record highs of $78.40, it is still above the $61 price at the start of the year and $20 at the start of 2002.
With the hurricane season and the end of winter still to get through there seems to be no reason for agressive calls for cutting oil production.

But some OPEC members are looking to 2007 when demand could drop sharply if independent producers bring on projects of new crude and slowing economic growth would furher erode demand for OPEC oil.
OPEC economists predict a drop of 800,000 bpd in the requirements for the group's oil.

OPEC's production ceiling was set at 28 million bpd and output this year has run just below the official limit with everyone of the 10 members save Saudi pumping flat out.
Riyadh pumping at about 9.2 million bpd holds most of OPEC's spare production capacity with more than 2 million bpd in reserve.

While the kingdom has supplied the customers with what they want, it has refused to discount barrels to force feed the market and depress prices.
Iran's deputy oil minister and oil minister said they expect OPEC to keep oil production steady when it meets to chart output policy. Their sentiments echoed those of Algerian Energy and Mines Minister.

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China's biggest refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical as well as Nippon Oil of Japan are trying to reduce their dependence on the Middle East by importing oil from Africa and Russia.

Angola and not Saudi Arabia is China's largest supplier this year and Japanese refiners are buying crude from the Russian Far East. As the world's fastest growing automobile market, Asia finds refined oil from Africa and Russia more attractive since it yields more gasoline and diesel than Mideast supplies.

This trend will benefit companies like EXxonMobil, BP, Total and OAO Lukoil that are drilling in Africa and Russia and have been largely excluded from production in the Middle East where state-owned monopolies control the oil industry.

The Asia-Pacific Petroleum Conference in Singapore will certainly have diversifying oil supplies on its agenda. With a fifth of the world's oil consumption flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, concern over disruption of oil supplies in that region by Iran have increased.

China Petroleum, Nippon Oil, Indian Oil  and SK of South Korea are few Asian refiners that have bought new grades of crude oil for the first time this year as sour-crude from the Mideast produces less gasoline and refiners in Asia are trying to produce more transportation fuel.

The share of producers such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen in the world's second-largest energy market has fallen with China importing from Africa, Kazakhstan, Russia and Venezuela.
Angola shipped 15 million tons of crude oil to China, in the first 7 months of the year, 13 percent more than Saudi Arabia.

While shipments from the Persian Gulf to China rose by 5.8 percent in the first half of this year, during the same period imports from Africa rose by 22 percent.

Sinopec imported Chinguetta crude from Mauritania and Azeri light and Hamaca Blend from Venezuela. Japan which relies on the Mideast for 90 percent of its oil needs has started to import crude to the tune of 700,000 barrels from Sakhalin island in Russia.

Indian Oil bought Girassol crude from Angola and Erha from Nigeria. Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have purchased Azeri light and Erha.

Refiners are taking Winston Churchill's words, "energy security lies in diversity" very seriously now.

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The controversial plan to effect ship-to-ship oil transfers may have got the go ahead from the Maritime and Coastgurad agency but environmental groups have vowed to wage a battle against it on the basis that the project would put the Fort and its two special protection areas for seabirds in serious danger.

The EU has launched an investigation to check whether the proposal to pump Russian crude oil between supertankers breaches any environmental regulations.

Mark Ruskell, a green environmentalist said that the Forth Ports situation could descend into a legal battle and that investor confidence in a less than clean PLC would suffer. He feels that the time is coming when executive ministers should use the licensing powers they hold.

Alyn Smith, the Scottish Nationalist MEP who triggered the EU investigation, said the outcome could overrule the Maritime and Coastguard agency's decision.

Forth Ports said that safety was of paramount importance and that it would await the decsion of the panel of independent experts  who  are carrying out the risk assessment of the proposal.

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US Senator Richard Lugar challenged America's automakers and citizens to decrease dependency on foreign oil at a Summit on Energy Security.

The day long summit held at the West Lafayette campus focused on foreign oil dependence and alternative fuels. Besides Lugar, Gov. Mitch Daniels and Purdue President Martin Jischke also spoke to a 1000 strong audience. Panel discussions included representative from BP Inc and Ford Motors.

Lugar proposed a series of measures to contain problems including mandates for more flexible-fuel vehicles, boosted ethanol production and usage, and the implementation of stricter vehicle mileage standards and convincing the federal government to enhance alternative fuel production through a progressive loan program.

He said that failure on the part of the nation to bring about a change in the energy policy despite repeated warnings would be more unconscionable given that success would not only contribute towards a better geopolitical climate but also provide restorative economic benefits to farmers, automakers and others.

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Iran responded to the incentive package given by the Western powers on Tuesday and said that it had offered positive signals in its proposal to resolve the standoff over its nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that if the Europeans paid proper attention to the positive and clear signals in Iran's response, then the nuclear standoff can be solved through negotiation and without tension.
But key UN Security Council members differed in their responses.

The US State Department agreed that Iran was sincere in its proposal but it fell short of the conditions set by the UN - the mainone being that Iran halt nuclear enrichment.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that only if Iran suspends enrichment can negotiation continue.
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said that the UN demand for suspension of enrichment indicated that Iran has lost the confidence of the international community that its nuclear program is civilian.
On the other hand Russia's Foreign Ministry said that talk of sanctions was premature before the Aug. 31 deadline was met and that they would continue to seek a negotiated solution.

China urged United States and its allies to be patient and Iran towards "constructive measures".

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Britain tried to prevent Nobel Laureate for Peace, El Baradei from getting a third term in charge of the UN's nuclear inspectorate.

El Baradei is the man leading the international campaign to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Though El Baradei was elected unopposed with overwhelming international support in the absence of any credible rivals, classified documents reveal that Blair's government refused to commit itself to supporting his bid for another term at the helm of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A source at the Department of Trade and Industry said that the government was following the Americans in the belief that El Baradie was not being tough enough on the Iranians.

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While top U.S. and European officials agreed that immediate action should be taken to halt the fighting in Lebanon, the views on 'immediate' differed.

Most European powers want Israel to stop its brutal offensive against Hezbollah that is harming Lebanon now. But the United States believes that this would leave the militia battered but defiant and that Israel should be given time to pound them into submission.

While the officials of 15 nations, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and represntatives of EU and World Bank at the Rome meeting expressed 'deep concern' over the crisis and the high number of civilian casualties, their conflicting approaches to the crisis were evident.

Italian Foreign Minister hinted at these differences by stating that many participants wanted an immediate truce to end hostilities. But Rice deflected the issue of Israel's offensive with talk of a more sustainable peace.

Lebanese PM Saniora had cause to be disappointed with the answer to his appeal for peace saying that the current violence has brought his country, still rebuilding itself from the civil war, "to its knees."
He recognized that the Israeli offensive had been brought about by the Hezbollah's incusrion over the UN border, but that the military retaliation by Israel was "disproportionate" and he urged the world leaders to keep working towards a cease-fire.

The one concensus reached in the conference was the need to set up a new multinational force under the U.N. mandate that would be tougher and morecapable of bringing about an end to violence in the area.

Italian Premier Prodi insisted that Washington was not alone in its quest for durable peace. Both Britain and Germany agreed that an immediate tuce was not possible.

Finally, Washington was supported in its position despite the large scaleloss of civilian property and life, as the others also approved the extension of the Lebanese government to the south by disarming the Hezbollah militia once and for all.

Israel did not attend the conference but stated that it expects action in support of the Lebanon army to disarm the Hezbollah to come from the conference otherwise it is forced to defend itself.

Israel also supports the multinational force to be deployed. The mandate of the force would be discussed over the next few days with Italy pledging troops if it is under the United Nations.

Rice shares Israel's concern over the Iran-Syria backing of the Hezbollah and affirms that the international force will be put together urgently.

Annan said the emerging force would help Lebanon exert its authority and disarm Hezbollah by implementing existing U.N. resolutions.

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At the meeting in Rome that was held to try and resolve the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the problem and solution are far broader in scope than the present conflict.
It is a battle for democracy and the sovereignty of Lebanon.

The United States sees oppurtunity to help Lebanon emerge stronger, so as to deal the enemies of peace and stability in the region a far reaching blow.

The United States strongly believes that Iranian and Syrian forces are encouraging and abetting radical and terrorist groups and disrupting peace in the region.
Iran in particular is thought to have facilitated the July 12 Hezbollah cross-border raid that sparked off the conflict.

The administration is re-focusing attention from Israel's brutal and punishing bombardment of Lebanon to the question of freedom.

A broad agreement about regional democracy may not be at hand, but that a more effective international force to be deployed in southern Lebanon is to happen. Whether the force would be deployed before or after the Hezbollah is disarmed remains to be seen.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Iraqui oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani met executives from oil companies in an effort to attract interest in Iraq's untapped oil and natural gas reserves.
The company's that were represented at the meeting include ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Marathon Oil Co.

Al-Shahristani stated that he would like to sign contracts with major oilcompanies by the end of the year for partnerships aimed at opening up Iraq's resources to the world market.

The oil minister who is on an official visit to the U.S. said the preliminary meeting was to lay out the principles of the partnership and that Iraq is not in talks with any specific company yet though they would like to move fast and reach agreements before the hydrocarbon law is enacted.

The hydrocarbon law of the Iraqui Parliament is to set up the legal framework for energy sector investment.

He also stated that the country is working to increase its crude oil production from the present 2.5 million barrels a day to 3 million by the end of the year and to 4.5 million b/d in 4 years.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Minister of Electricity, who accompanied the oil minister to the States signed a Memoradum of Understanding with the U.S. Energy Deaprtment aimed at increasing cooperation on energy analysis and technology. The Iraqui Parliament is still to approve the agreement.

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