Ministers from mostly oil importing countries meet to talk clean
energy
Seoul (Platts)--12May2014/626 am EDT/1026 GMT
Energy ministers and senior energy officials from 24 countries,
including Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi and US Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz, are meeting in Seoul for two days to discuss how to reduce fossil
oil consumption and promote renewable resources.
"The transition to a world powered by clean energy has the potential to
not only significantly reduce carbon pollution and reduce the risk of
climate change, but to also create entrepreneurial opportunities and
jobs," Yoon Sang-Jick, South Korea's minister for trade, industry and
energy, said Monday in opening remarks of the annual Clean Energy
Ministerial.
Other representatives came from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and
Japan.
CEM is a US-led voluntary global forum of energy ministers from 23
governments with the aim of accelerating the world's clean energy
transition. Members are mostly oil importers.
Saudi Arabia is not a member of the group, but Naimi asked to
participate as an observer for the first time this year, the South
Korean ministry said. The meeting has been held annually since 2010.
"Participants are focusing their discussions on examining reasons for
declining global investment in clean energy and how to cope with it,"
Kim Jun-Dong, South Korea's deputy minister of energy and resources
policy at the ministry, told Platts.
Global investment in clean energy fell to $25.4 billion last year from
$28.6 billion in 2012 and $31.8 billion in 2011, he said.
"Another main agenda item for this meeting is how to foster markets for
clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, so as to create jobs," Kim
said.
During Monday's session, South Korea called for lowering trade barriers
on products and services related to renewable energy, a ministry
official said.
"Clean energy products must have easier access to the markets across the
globe," he said.
On the sidelines of the meeting, International Energy Agency Executive
Director Maria van der Hoeven said that the "business-as-usual approach
must be overhauled to cope with global shift to electricity that is
rivaling oil as the dominant energy carrier."
"Electricity is going to play a defining role in the first half of this
century as the energy carrier that increasingly power economic growth
and development," van der Hoeven told reporters during a press
conference. "While this offers many opportunities, it does not solve all
out problems; indeed, it creates many new challenges."
--Charles Lee, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Meghan Gordon, meghan.gordon@platts.com
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