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 Shaping the Future of the Energy Industry
Industry Partners and Associates are select member companies of the World Economic Forum that are actively involved in the Forum's mission at the industry level. Partnership brings visibility and insight to strategic decision-making on the most important industry and cross-industry related issues and the opportunity to engage in actions of global corporate citizenship. As a self directed community, Industry Partners broaden their involvement beyond the CEO to its senior leadership team in an ongoing process throughout the year.
Issues & challenges
Industry Partners within the Energy community have privileged access to ideas, projects, experts and organisations that actively focus on the top industry issues and challenges. In response the input and direction of the Industry Partners, the Energy community within the Forum has focused upon the following global initiatives in 2007 (Download the two page briefing):
Gleneagles Dialogue - A cross-industry project mandated by the G8/G20 to provide business recommendations on the Climate framework. More information (PDF)
Energy Security Roundtable - 2007 high-level with President Putin and First Deputy Prime Ministers Ivanov and Medvedev in Russia, and with Executive Vice-Chairman, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Chen Deming in China. 2008 Energy Security Roundtable on invitation of Secretary Kessel, Mexico, on the future of PEMEX, with Mexican Legislators.
Energy Poverty Action - Electrification of villages in sub-Saharan Africa to reduce energy poverty, whilst pioneering capacity building in marginalised environments. More information.
Partnering Against Corruption Initiative - A cross-industry initiative to develop and implement business solutions that combat global corruption. More information (PACI link)
SlimCity - A cross-industry initiative to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions at the city level, in partnership with the World Bank and the International Energy Agency.
Sustainable Biofuels - There are "good" and "bad" biofuels. The Forum facilitates a cross-industry dialogue on the risks and opportunities related to biofuels.
Thirsty Energy - The marginal energy unit brought to the system is increasingly water intensive. Potential vicious circles strengthened by climate change require a risk-mitigation strategy.
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Issues Briefings
Climate Change: The Gleneagles Dialogue Industry Partnership Project
Tackling climate change has become a key priority for governments and business. For the Energy Industry, lack of clarity on long term policy frameworks on climate change is a major concern.
Through our cross-industry Gleneagles Dialogue project, the World Economic Forum offers its industry partner companies the opportunity to engage in the unique G8/G20 Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development. Launched at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005, the Dialogue process will report its outcomes to the 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan. The Forum is partnering with the World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in this project.
The objective is to offer a truly global and cross-sectoral business involvement in the Gleneagles Dialogue and develop recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the G8 Summit in June 2008. The project work programme focusses on three key areas of climate change:
> Policy Frameworks: A global Business CEO statement on long-term policy frameworks to tackle climate change is being developed and will be delivered to G8 Leaders in Japan 2008. In a private session during the 2008 Annual Meeting, CEOs will endorse the key concepts and messages of the draft policy statement which has resulted from a year of continuous consultations, via specific regional meetings and private events at Forum summits.
> Smarter Investment: Industry Partner companies have in partnership with carbon finance and clean energy specialists from the UK, German and Japanese Governments, the World Bank and other Regional developed recommendations for better investment frameworks for clean energy penetration in developing countries. The key recommendation is the establishment of a new public-private finance instrument to catalyse investment in clean energy. Recommendations were put forward to Ministers of Finance and Presidents of Multilateral Development Banks.in preparation for the Conference of Parties meeting in Bali in 2007. The aim is to have the proposed public-private financing instrument discussed at the World Bank 2008 spring meetings and at the Gleneagles Dialogue ministerial meeting to be hosted by Japan on 14-16 March 2008 in Tokyo.
> Changing Behaviour: This workstream aims to illustrate the scale of carbon reductions achievable through practical abatement actions and address the hurdles that prevents implementation. The outcome will be a five-year action plan setting out a series of potential carbon abatement opportunities, delivered into the Ministerial Meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue in Japan from 14-16 March 2008.
Partnering Against Corruption (PACI)
The World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) is a global anti-corruption initiative driven by the private sector. The initiative brings together companies from multiple industries and global locations to fight bribery and corruption. Launched by CEOs from leading global corporations at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2004 in Davos, PACI helps to consolidate industry efforts on the issue and to shape the evolving regulatory framework.
The initiative offers signatory companies a platform for peer exchange on practical experience and dilemma situations, tools to support programme development and implementation, as well as an annual benchmarking process. By becoming a PACI signatory, a company commits to a zero-tolerance policy toward bribery and corruption and agrees to put in place an internal anti-corruption programme that reflects the PACI Principles.
Today, there are some 140 signatory companies, representing a global annual turnover of over USD 800 billion, including industry leaders from multiple sectors such as Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell, StatoilHydro, ABB, Rio Tinto, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Coca-Cola Company, TNT, UPS, Henry Schein, Merck and Co. as well as American International Group and BASF SE. For a full list of PACI signatory companies, please go to: www.weforum.org/paci. Overall, the PACI has increased private sector dynamics on the issue and advanced the credibility of companies’ active engagement on the issue.
Energy Security Roundtable
Energy Security has been high on the agenda for the Energy Community over the last past years and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. The Energy Security Roundtable provides the world’s leading energy senior executives and selected Energy Ministers and government strategists with the opportunity to engage with their peers to define and address critical energy security issues on a neutral platform and in informal environment that the Forum offers.
The objective of the Energy Security Roundtable is to create a meaningful dialogue on how energy suppliers, energy producers, government policy makers and consumers can join together to shape a new energy security paradigm that addresses the changing realities of the 21st century and respond to all stakeholders' needs in a cooperative fashion. Regular discussions on Energy Security at the Energy Summit in Davos and biannual Energy Strategy Meetings are complemented by regional perspectives that emerge at Regional Summits. In 2007, the Community met at a high level meeting with President Putin and First Deputy Prime Ministers Dmitri Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov in Russia.
Energy Poverty Alliance (EPA)
The Energy Poverty Action (EPA) is a private sector initiative which delivers business expertise and best practices to reduce energy poverty by developing innovative, scaleable and replicable energyfication projects. One key concept is empowerment of local user groups to take charge of, and responsibility for the management of local energy systems. The three initiating partners, British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (Canada), Eskom (South Africa) and Vattenfall (Sweden) have signed an EPA Alliance Agreement and have committed to developing initial projects in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2007, at the World Economic Forum Africa Economic Summit, the African Development Bank officially announced its support for the first initial project in Lesotho.
The short-term EPA objective is the successful completion of the initial projects and the replication of business driven alliances with commitments to new project by involving additional business partners.
At the 2007 World Economic Forum on Africa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) commenced hosting of the EPA Management Unit (EPAMU) to further promote EPA objectives. The mid-term objective is to build EPAMU’s institutional capacity to act as a matchmaker between leading companies, governments, local entrepreneurs and communities, national and international finance institutions and donors to enable project financing and execution to address the challenges of energy poverty.
During the World Energy Congress 2007 in Rome, Italy, the World Energy Council (WEC) joined the EPA as a Network Partner, followed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which joined the EPA as a Network Partner during the Annual Meeting 2008. These institutions are committed to work with the Forum to jointly promote these objectives.
SlimCity
Energy and resource efficiency is a vital, central means to achieve a sustainable future. Efficiency, particularly in infrastructure and mobility, fundamentally impacts security, greenhouse gas emissions, conservation of natural resources, financing costs and the cost of operations. As the world’s population continues to gravitate towards urban areas, the importance of cities in this struggle for resource efficiency will continue to grow ever stronger. In parallel, leading cities throughout the world routinely demonstrate that the localisation of policies has the potential to be more effective than national initiatives – whilst national policies remain important, cities are able to act independently to achieve substantial results.
SlimCity is a global partnership focusing on energy and resource efficiency in cities. SlimCity provides a risk-free, dynamic, multi-stakeholder environment within which cities and the private sector can exchange knowledge found throughout the world, and so utilise global resources to act.
Sustainable Biofuels
Biofuels has been on the agenda for a number of years and is increasingly controversial in the public space. The reason for this is simple: there are "good" and "bad" biofuels. In a series of session the energy industry partners explore how to "split the chaff from the wheat" by identifying principles for sustainable biofuels.
Energy Vision
Finally, in a series of sessions the energy industry partners explore the theme of energy vision, focussing on innovation and what could create a tipping point in the Energy History. Our current energy path is not sustainable from multiple perspectives. However, converging forces of climate change, energy security, energy prices and consumer pressures, can alter the course. Responding to the hard truths of accelerating energy demand and C02 emissions will no doubt generate turbulence in the energy system in decades to come. The path towards a different energy future is not yet clear, but there is a window of opportunity for stakeholders to shape it now.
Fashion, consumer trends and the personification of technology are important drivers behind rapid change in industries including textiles, automotive and IT. Examples such as the Toyota Prius or Web 2.0 demonstrate that changing consumer preferences can leave laggards exposed to the liability of lack in innovation. The energy industry has never been exposed to these types of drivers. Key innovations in the sector have traditionally been driven by regulation rather than by the consumer. However, high energy prices coupled with increasing concern about climate change and new technologies could potentially introduce consumers as a powerful driver for change. The sharp increase of venture capital investment in clean tech energy and increasing interest of private equity firms in acquiring energy assets may introduce new dynamics for the energy future.
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