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International Energy Forum: Engaging the Future Through Dialogue

Fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewable energy sources will need to work in tandem in a transparent and predictable market environment to meet the rising demands that economics, demography and the environment ask of the global energy system.

Long-term commitments and high-levels of confidence remain the trademarks of energy markets. The distance energy travels across borders from production to consumption has lengthened and the lifetime of investment cycles mean that benefits as well as responsibilities are best shared collectively among stakeholders. Global energy systems shall continue to call on conventional fossil fuels to do the heavy lifting for the foreseeable future. Demand growth in emerging economies and replacement of declining resources in energy import dependent regions will be met by coal, gas and oil. They shall still make up 80% of total global energy demand by 2040, according to perspectives presented at the Fifth IEA-IEF-OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks, and so remain the backbone to global energy security. Yet the challenges currently facing the energy sector are many and manifest, they include the quest to tame excessive volatility, ensure market security and facilitate development and sustainable growth. 

The International Energy Forum (IEF) is home to the producer-consumer dialogue that advances global energy security and sustainable market functioning across interdependent regions. The IEF provides a neutral platform among 74 stakeholder countries and a diverse range of transnational companies that gather in the IEF Industry Advisory Committee to enable policy cohesion, market transparency and engagement through well-informed and timely dialogue. Since 2003 the permanent Secretariat of the IEF has been headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the invitation of HRH King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Following a call from Ministers in 2005, the IEF assumed responsibility for coordination of the Joint Organizations Data Initiative which enhances oil and gas market transparency and shares analysis on physical and financial market interactions and viable pathways for the future. Above all the IEF creates a community where governments and industries can set differences aside and raise pressing issues to tackle global challenges together based on the IEF Charter.

Fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewable energy sources will need to work in tandem in a transparent and predictable market environment to meet the rising demands that economics, demography and the environment ask of the global energy system. To find new optimums, energy supply chains will have to become more agile and flexible. Recent changes in the energy landscape open up new horizons that the IEF dialogue explores to help secure sustainable energy production and consumption over the longer term and assists governments in a timely identification of issues to alleviate hurdles to global development and market security. In today’s more dynamic global system, dialogue often trumps policy- and market rigidities. Therefore the role of the IEF has never been more vitally important. 

Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.