This year has been filled with struggles for environmentalists and climate change advocates. However, mostly their campaigns have fallen on deaf ears. The US rejected outright the guidelines outlined at the recent Bali Climate Change Conference. It was one of the biggest blows to the environmental movement in 2007. Despite being backed by the members of the European Union and Brazil, the US has refused to commit to any cuts in emissions, however unbinding and subject to change in the future they were.
The Bush Administration has yet again proved its unrelenting stand against any initiatives concerning global warming that would involve any compromises from its side. And its excuse: developing countries should be the ones to start making cuts in their emissions.
Abu Dhabi is intent on playing a role in the development of a cleaner and safer sources of energy.
Developing countries, meanwhile, are having none of it. The US, they argue, should take the lead, adding historically they have had an unnoticed role in bringing about global warming.
Does it seem like we’re going in circles here? From purely selfish, and short-term, economic standpoints it is easy to understand both positions.
Why would the US want to cut down on emissions and bring about any changes in its economy when other nations can do it?
On the other hand, why would developing and booming economies, especially countries such as China and India, be forced to slow down the progress they have made in the last few years while America reaps the benefits?
The solution to the stalemate may lie close to home. Shortly after Bali, Abu Dhabi announced hosting the first energy summit after the Indonesian island’s conference.
Abu Dhabi has not been short of surprises this year when it came to its environmental initiatives such as its planned zero-emissions Green City. It seems that the world’s fifth largest oil producer is intent on playing a much larger role in the development of alternative, cleaner and safer sources of energy.
Hosting the inaugural World Future Energy Summit (WFES) from January 21 to 23, 2008, the UAE capital will hold the first major summit where government, business and NGOs gather to address energy alternatives and progress global cooperation on future energy.
Promising to be the largest and most comprehensive event on alternative energy to date, the WFES will feature 78 high-profile speakers.
It will also host over 180 top international exhibitors from energy, finance, green construction, government and environment sectors, in addition to 13 overseas energy ministers, and state secretaries from Germany and Norway. Where major announcements and contributions are concerned, HRH Prince Charles, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson of Iceland and President Ismail Omer Guelleh of Djibouti are expected to take to the stage. Top managers from global giants such as Shell, BP, Total, Occidental and International Power, along with top financers from Credit Suisse, Standard Charter and Merrill Lynch, and Greenpeace International and Forum for the Future, will join the summit as business, government and NGO’s will attempt to clarify their positions on energy and climate crisis issues.
Whether this gathering of world ministers, politicians, business leaders, and environmentalists, as well as international exhibitors will bring about a shift in the global energy and environmental crisis is still to be seen.
However, would it not be fitting if it was Abu Dhabi, at the very heart of the oil producing world, that ultimately proved to be the bridge between the US and the emerging economies of the east, allowing them to finally settle their differences?
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