This October 30th, Friends of Europe held its 5th Annual Energy Conference: Defining Europe’s energy strategy: The long term view. By 2030 global energy demand will be greater than 50% today, with fossil fuels still accounting for the bulk of that. The EU’s efforts to combat climate change have to take into account several factors, including external relations and reaching international dialogue. Having looked towards taking more decisive action in a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement, this debate involved some of the key players and put the important issues forward for lively discussion.

Speakers included:

• Juan Alario, Associate Director and Head of the Division “Energy Efficiency and Renewables”, European Investment Bank (EIB)
• Tom Burke, Founding Director of E3G Third Generation Environmentalism and Environmental Policy Adviser to Rio Tinto
• Chris Davies MEP, Member of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and Rapporteur on Carbon Capture and Storage
• Henry Derwent, President and CEO, International Emission Trading Association (IETA)
• Gavin Edwards, Head of Climate & Energy Unit, Greenpeace International
• Siobhan Hall, EU News Editor, Platts
• Vesile Kulaçoglu, Director of the Trade and Environment Division, World Trade Organisation (WTO)
• Nuno Lacasta, Director, Climate Change Commission & Portuguese Carbon Fund, Portugal
• Paul Magnette, Belgian Minister for Climate and Energy
• Eddie O'Connor, Secretary and Member of Executive Committee, European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)
• Ana Palacio, Senior Vice President of International Affairs and Marketing, AREVA, and former Senior Vice President and Group General Counsel of the World Bank
• Solomon Passy, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bulgarian National Assembly, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria
• Andris Piebalgs, EU Energy Commissioner 
• Jaana Remes, Senior Fellow, McKinsey Global Institute, San Francisco
• Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at the Université Catholique de Louvain-La-Neuve (UCL)
• Zhao Xingshu, Researcher, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing

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