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inter-fuel substitution and • investment/transit
indigenous energy produc- safeguards and burden
tion while at the same time sharing.
reducing emissions of
methane to the atmosphere, It agreed that enhanced
a potent greenhouse gas. expert dialogues on ener-
This is one of the newer gy security be conducted
avenues of work under the during the annual session
Committee that is also of the Committee with
supported by a technical the participation of
of
assistance project. representatives
governments, energy
financial
Natural Gas, today's fuel of industries,
choice and the so-called community and relevant
transition fuel providing international organisa-
the bridge between the pre- tions.
sent and a much cleaner,
environmentally benign Q: The specialists
energy future, is an impor- say that the oil will
tant activity of the Working only last until 2050,
Party on Gas and the unless major new
UNECE Gas Centre. reserves are found,
and even then, most
In every important respect, of the oil easy to get
the need for secure and sus- at has already been
tainable energy supplies extracted. Do you

pose problems that will not have programmes according Federation,
to
Russian
the
go away and that probably looking at alternative
International Energy Eastern Europe and Central
cannot actually be solved. sources of energy?
Agency. Asia are strategically
Member States can only
important energy suppliers
hope to manage them bet- Thirty five years ago, the
The narrowing margin bet- and transit countries for
ter. However, in order to do energy crisis was 'supply-
ween oil supply and Western European energy
this they will need open a driven' by the OPEC oil demand has driven up security. For example,
new chapter in internatio- embargo. It ended with
hydrocarbon prices. The Russian oil and natural gas
nal energy cooperation. increased deliveries on the
volatility of oil prices is exports account for 20 per
international oil market.
further aggravated by inter- cent or more of the oil and
A New Energy Dialogue At Today global energy
national tensions, terrorism gas consumed in 20
its annual session in security risks are 'demand-
and the potential for supply Eastern and Western
November 2006, delega- driven', having increased
Although
European countries.
disruptions.
tions recommended that sharply because of steeply
hydrocarbon reserves and
the Committee on rising oil import demand resources are abundant glo- The ECE Committee on
Sustainable Energy under- largely in developing coun-
bally, they are concentrated Sustainable Energy has
take a broadly shared inter- tries. For example, the
in a few geographic regions responded to this challenge
governmental expert dialo- United States currently
some of which are econo- by launching an inter-
gue on energy security in consumes about 21 million
mically vulnerable and governmental dialogue
one or more of the follo- barrels of oil per day while
unstable. Even developing between producers and
wing areas: China consumes about 8
these reserves in some consumers on energy
million But Chinese oil
countries is difficult becau- security with practical
• data and information demand is expected to se of the restricted access work through its expert
sharing and increased double by 2015. This
of international oil and gas groups and technical
transparency; would amount to the total
companies. assistance projects.
infrastructure investment current oil output of Saudi
and financing; Arabia.
During the 1970s 'energy Q: We hear a lot about
legal, regulatory and
efficiency.
crisis', east-west energy energy
policy framework; Growing energy demand is
trade and cooperation allo- What is the Energy
harmonisation of stan- most unlikely to diminish
wed western consuming Efficiency 21 Project,
dards; any time soon. Indeed, glo-
countries to diversify their and what would you
research, development bal energy needs are expec- sources of oil and natural like to achieve?
and deployment of new ted to increase by more
gas supplies away from the
technologies, and than 50 per cent by 2030
Middle East. Today the
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