Leaders Challenge Energy Issues

Presidents from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the Ukraine will join top business leaders and policy makers from around the world next week at an Istanbul conference focused on energy security and the changing energy landscape.

Conference organiser Cambridge Energy Resources Associates (CERA) says leaders will be asked to debate issues around energy security, the impact of climate change policies on energy supplies and the viability of renewable energy sources such as biofuels among other topics.

CERA chairman Dr Daniel Yergin says the conference will provide a platform for addressing major energy issues that face the world today, and will help create strategies for dealing with future issues of supply and the financial and environmental impacts the future will bring.

"This conference is very timely as it highlights how resources and markets are becoming intertwined across regions and continents even as geo-political controversies and anxieties rise," Yergin says.

Speakers will include Arab Emirates Minister of Energy and President of the Organisation of Petroleum Export Countries conference HE Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al Hamli, European Commission Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and State Grid of China President Liu Zhenya.