By Krishnan Nayar NEW DELHI, (Pakistan Point News - 15th Dec, 2019) The US-India business Council, USIBC, has announced its support for the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum to be held in Abu Dhabi next month. This will bring India into the ambit of the premier international gathering of government, industry and thought leaders in the sphere of energy for the fourth year in a row.
With this announcement, India will also be associating itself in a new role with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, ADSW, a global platform for accelerating the world’s sustainable development. Simultaneously, US-Bangladesh Working Group, a sister organisation of the USIBC, also proclaimed its support for the Abu Dhabi conclave.
Three Indian speakers have so far confirmed their participation in this important conference on the geopolitics of energy transformation that will set the energy agenda for the year and examine the geo-economic implications of a changing energy system.
The speakers with India connections, who have so far confirmed attendance are Amit Bhandari, Fellow, Energy and Environment Studies Programme, Gateway House, a leading think tank in Mumbai; Arunabha Ghosh, a member of the Environment Pollution Control Authority for India’s National Capital Region and an architect of the International Solar Alliance; and Nandita Parshad, Managing Director of the Sustainable Infrastructure Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
More speakers from India are expected to be added to the list. From Bangladesh, a distinguished speaker will be Tawfiq-e Elahi Chowdhury, Energy Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
This will be the fourth edition of the annual Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum.
The USIBC said, "The 2020 forum will emphasise South and South East Asia as a growing energy demand centre and focus 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 USIBC was created in 1975 at the initiative of the US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and has since become the Primary vehicle to promote and foster trade and economic ties between the US and India, and occasionally with third countries, as in this case with the UAE. It has offices in New Delhi and in Washington.
