World Energy Council Co-Chair plays host to international media round-table

 

In anticipation of the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul, current Council Co-chair Younghoon David Kim hosted a media round-table in Seoul with senior foreign correspondents on 24 May.

Participants including journalists from Platts, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Nikkei (Japan), Xinhua (China) and Cihan News Agency (Turkey), joined Co-chair Kim for an intensive two-hour session which covered topics ranging from the Council’s role in the grand transition of the energy sector to details about this year’s Congress.

Great interest was placed on the various speakers attending and sessions to be held in Istanbul including a day which will be centred on Africa, sessions devoted to a better understanding of the complex interrelationships between energy, food and water and the role that governments should play, as well as innovative technology.

Co-chair Kim was asked to comment on the security challenges hosting Congress in Istanbul might bring. He stated that the organising committee had a robust security plan in place and that the city was continuing to host a variety of important international events.

The journalists from China debated the impact of the current lack of investment in infrastructure would mean for future energy security. Picking up on that point, Platts was interested in knowing whether or not low oil prices could instead constitute a breakthrough for the energy community. The Wall Street Journal questioned whether or not battery storage would revolutionise the transportation sector and if oil would ever reach the $150+/barrel mark again.

Renewable energy was also a topic of great interest during the round-table with the New York Times speculating which of the renewable energy sources currently available was the most promising, while Nikkei enquired how the whole issue of renewable energy was to be addressed at Congress.

Finally, there was discussion among the participants on how the COP 21 agreement would impact the energy sector. Specifically, would the agreement help to accelerate the energy transition and what impact would it have on energy market design?

The intense discussions that took place at the media round table were indicative of the topics currently high on the energy agenda, which should make the 23rd World Energy Congress the subject of much global media interest.