The Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation
January 10-12, 2020

St. Regis Abu Dhabi on the Corniche, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Agenda at a glance

Friday, January 10

  • Welcome reception and book presentation with Nick Cochrane-Dyet

Saturday, January 11

  • Official opening of the fourth annual Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum
  • Setting the scene: Energy security, energy access, and clean air: Meeting the challenges
  • Setting the 2020 energy agenda
  • Financial innovation presentation: Oil & gas company venture funds
  • The role of the oil & gas industry in the energy transition
  • Report launch 1: Energy sector diversification: Meeting demographic challenges in the MENA region
  • Report launch 2: Transforming the power sector in South and Southeast Asia
  • Report launch 3: Grid integration: Efficiencies, vulnerabilities, and international implications
  • Breakout session: The future of national oil companies
  • Finance innovation presentation: Mobile power generation in Afghanistan
  • Delivering energy access and meeting demand in South and Southeast Asia
  • Pathways to net zero
  • Tenth anniversary of the US-UAE 123 agreement
  • Night owl: The Greta effect: Global responses to the climate crisis (off-the-record)

Sunday, January 12

  • Africa’s energy futures
  • Energy security and geopolitics: Are risk and uncertainty the new normal?
  • Sustainable metals and minerals for the energy transition
  • The great gas debate: The role of gas in the energy transition
  • Energy interconnections: A tool for stability or a vector of geopolitical risk?
  • Report launch 4: Regional mega-mergers: The politics of creating synergies
  • Report launch 5: The future of nuclear power: Financing and international harmonization
  • Report launch 6: Energy interconnections in Europe under a decarbonization agenda
  • Edelman’s trust barometer: ESG as the new investment driver
  • Financing the upstream in an ESG world
  • Petro dollar. Petro yuan. Petro rupee?
  • Trade wars and their impact on energy access and energy transition
  • US election 2020: What’s at stake for energy and climate?

Partners

Session coverage

Blog coverage

Issue briefs and reports from Atlantic Council experts on the geopolitics of the energy transformation.


Watch a playlist of all 2020 event sessions on YouTube

Click the playlist button in the upper-right hand corner of the YouTube player below to select the event session you would like to watch. Refer to the event agenda to find sessions of interest.

2020 session transcripts

Interview with Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe

Interview with Atlantic Council President & CEO Fred Kempe on the ‘remarkable’ human potential in the MENA region. (Emirates News Agency)

Select photos from the event

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The Geopolitics of
the Energy Transformation

The Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum is the go-to conference on the geopolitics of the energy transformation, where energy and foreign policy leaders come together to set the energy agenda for the year and examine the longer-term geopolitical and geo-economic implications of the changing energy system.

The 2020 iteration of the forum focuses on three key themes: the role of the oil and gas industry in the energy transition, financing the future of energy, and interconnections in a new era of geopolitics. The forum’s regional footprint has expanded to emphasize increasing energy demand in South and Southeast Asia.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, the forum is held in partnership with the UAE Ministry of Energy and Industry, ADNOC, and Mubadala, and is part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

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