Future Energy Leaders Program at a glance

The objective of this study is to provide an annual assessment of policies, regulations and/or standards and their effectiveness in addressing climate, growth or equality goals. The study will take into account regional characteristics as policies are not necessarily transferable from one region to another. It will also measure progress toward achieving the WEC development goals. Second, it should enhance WEC’s visibility by publishing and promulgating the results of the assessment and proposing ways in which good practices in one country or region might be used in others.

Although there is agreement on the principle that energy should be universally accessible, there seems to be several opinions on the best way to reach this goal. The sheer diversity of local conditions and uneven distribution of available natural resources precludes the possibility of having a single approach. Energy access programs and policies therefore need to be tailored to fit local need to be effective. We need however to determine what are the basic principles which need to be respected and the best conditions under which those programs can be implemented to ensure a maximum positive impact and a rapidly measurable effects. In this context, it becomes particularly important to see how do international organisations develop those programs and measure the benefits they procure.

Energy systems are complex and their evolution involves input from a variety of disparate sources. This high complexity, combined with uncertainty, constrains the predictability of energy foresight. WEC scenarios, built on its diverse membership structure, play an important role in a multi-stakeholder environment filled with ambiguity.

Previous WEC studies have identified vulnerabilities as significant hurdles to be overcome:

Four sub groups will examine these vulnerabilities as parts of an integrated study and their findings will be parts of a final study. Working with governments  academics and taking regional characteristics into consideration, each sub group will identify its specific issue and examine the financial and policy requirements needed to address them. The objective is to provide important information for decision makers in industry, governments and development institutions highlighting the risks to energy and social sustainability from these vulnerabilities.

There will be special emphasis on issues specific to regions, but these will be assembled into global scale recommendations. The study will be accomplished in stages from December 2008 until the Montreal Congress in 2010.

This triennial publication is an indispensable reference for energy industry executives, scenario analysts and energy technology researchers. The findings it contains are invaluable to many organizations in energy community, such as the IEA, the EIA and the IAEA and certain development agencies. It is the only source of data on global energy compiled from national data that is carefully checked to ensure accuracy. The latest version is a 600-page document on which much of the planning done worldwide will be based. This 22nd edition of the Survey of Energy Resources, including a full report on CD-ROM and a synopsis, will be made available to delegates at the Montreal Congress in September 2010.

Carbon capture and storage after Copenhagen: An imperative, not an option

Given the growing concerns about the environmental performance of fossil fuels, it is imperative to find ways for deployment of cleaner and more efficient fossil fuels combustion technologies. Cleaner systems mitigate the adverse consequences of the use of fossil fuels and permit their positive qualities to be more fully harnessed for economic and social development. Clean technologies development is advancing rapidly and there is a major potential for their deployment, in particular in the quickly growing developing countries.

Market structures, technologies, environmental standards, and other factors are changing the way the electricity sector operates and are posing new challenges for power plant operators around the world. New strategies, greater collaboration within the industry, and new tools are required to make it possible to collect, analyse, and leverage plant performance initiatives. The Committee’s main objective is to promote international data exchange and best practices for generating plant performance and to achieve the most effective use of generation assets and energy resources worldwide. This objective will be accomplished by enhanced international data exchange and communications, benchmarking workshops and presentations. The new generating plant performance indicators database will be at the centre of the process with continuous power plant reliability statistics collection and direct entry of data into the database by participating companies and organisations.

In the past few years there have been important advances in the field of alternative transportation fuels, primarily ethanol and biodiesel. Both the automobile industry and the biodiesel producers have played a major role in developing the technical and normative prerequisites. The challenge is to develop biofuels which do not compete with the food chain, which are sustainable, and for which the carbon footprint is known and a net gain.  The main objective of the Task Force will be to identify and evaluate the leading production technologies and the main barriers to an accelerated development and deployment of biofuels standards and technologies worldwide and formulate recommendations for removal of these barriers.

In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of pressure groups of all kinds wanting a voice in the development all projects which could have a potential environmental or social impact. What role do organisations like NGOs, citizens groups, professional associations want to play in the planning and development of energy policies and infrastructures. How do they perceive the energy sector and, considering the need to increased supply to satisfy demand, how do they want to work with industry representatives?