ABu Dhabi: The World Future Energy Summit 2015 opened Monday amid the ongoing concern caused by the fall in global crude oil prices.
However, the UAE oil minister said the recent drop in oil prices was unlikely to last for long and that the country would not alter its energy strategy because of the price fall. “I doubt it is going to last for very long,” Suhail Bin Mohammad Al Mazroui said, without elaborating on the time frame for any price recovery.
“I am a believer in sustainable development, and sustainable development in the oil sector can’t be achieved under current prices,” he added.
Al Mazroui said the UAE would continue its strategy of diversifying its energy mix for power generation. “We should not change course because of what happened [with oil prices],” he said. Yesterday, Brent crude traded around $49.81 a barrel, a drop of over 60 per cent since June of last year.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, attended the opening ceremony, along with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, who received the first honorary Zayed Future Energy Prize award for his commitment to clean energy.
Al Sissi vowed to make Egypt a hub of economy and promises to bring in comprehensive reforms in the subsidies in the next five years to get the country back on the track of economic recovery.
Former United States vicepresident and climate changeactivist Al Gore received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of sustainability and for efforts that aim to reduce climate change
— With inputs from Reuters
