The Keynote Address of the Conference will be delivered by H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
At the opening session, a second Keynote Address will be given by Dr. Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, Former Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, while Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, ECSSR Director General, will deliver the Welcoming Remarks at the beginning of the conference proceedings.
The 14th Annual Energy Conference coincides with the announcement of a number of peaceful nuclear programs in the Gulf States aimed at providing the necessary energy to fuel the ongoing development process being witnessed in the region.
Naturally, this attaches special significance to this year’s conference.
The main objective of the conference is to assess the potential development of peaceful nuclear capabilities in the Gulf States as a practical option in meeting the region’s significant future energy requirements.
The conference seeks to achieve the following:
•First, to identify the causes and implications of the peaceful application of nuclear energy in the Gulf region, and to ascertain the role nuclear energy will play in the context of energy security, climate change and the risks of nuclear proliferation.
•Second, to study the necessary requirements called for as part of the road map for the development of a peaceful nuclear capability in the region, and to analyze factors pertaining to the economic feasibility of nuclear energy as a power source and its political and social implications.
•Third, to analyze risks and opportunities associated with nuclear energy by exploring research on security infrastructure and nonproliferation standards, and explore the scope and role of international cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy and long-term development.
•Fourth, to examine case studies of existing civilian nuclear programs in other parts of the world, while focusing in particular on the policies and strategies adopted in Japan and Germany.
•Fifth, to provide a comparative outlook of nuclear energy in the region through an assessment of the cases involving Iran, Israel, Pakistan and India.
Participants attending the conference, which will last for three days, will include a select number of distinguished officials, professionals and academics, including: H.E. Ambassador Hamad Ali Al Ka’abi, UAE Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Special Representative for International Nuclear Cooperation in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Adnan A. Shihab-Eldin, Former Acting Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Former Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Division for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific; Dr. Mahmoud Nasreddine, Director General of the Arab Atomic Energy Agency (AAEA); Prof. Stephen Thomas, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Greenwich Business School (UK); Junko Ogawa, Executive Communicator for the Public Relations Department of the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC); Dr. Rajagopala Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet; and Dr. Abdelghani Mohammad Melaibari, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Supervisor of Strategic Planning at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia.
The conference program will include six panels which cover a number of major issues related to the topic of nuclear energy in the Gulf. Panel I will explore the ’Motives and Implications of the Peaceful Application of Nuclear Energy in the Gulf’; Panel II shall discuss the ’Requirements and Imperatives of the Roadmap for Developing a Peaceful Nuclear Capability’; Panel III will be concerned with ’Managing the Risks and Opportunities of the Nuclear Sector’; Panel IV will examine ’Case Studies of Civilian Nuclear Power Programs: Policies and Strategies’; while Panel V will cover ’The Status of Nuclear Energy in the Region,’ and in particular the cases of Iran, Israel, Pakistan and India; and the final panel of the conference will discuss ’The Global Future of Nuclear Energy and its Consequences for the Gulf,’ through a review of the lessons derived from the experience of the nuclear countries and a discussion on the formulation of a sustainable nuclear vision for the Gulf.
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