At the end of last month, politicians, diplomats, executives and experts assembled in Abu Dhabi for the World Future Energy Summit.
In such financially disquieting times – particularly for Europe and the US where the dreaded word ‘recession’ has passed from the realms of possibility into those of reality – it is easy for matters of long-term sustainability to be overlooked in favour of short-term circumstances.
Indeed, it won’t have come as a surprise to many that the World Economic Forum rather overshadowed happenings at the World Future Energy Summit; but while the British PM Gordon Brown was debating stimulus packages in Davos, his predecessor, Tony Blair, was still thinking green in the UAE.
“It is hard with this immediate challenge to focus on the long-term challenge of climate change but it is necessary. Now is the moment when our responsibility to future generations should be answered,” said Blair.
And he is right to keep fighting the good fight. Not just because there is absolutely nothing more important than the future of the planet, but also because sustainability could well lead to salvation from the financial slowdown.
One particular economic theory suggests that, during recessions, older industries die off and make way for new innovation-driven industries. For a region as focused around and reliant upon fuels as the Middle East, innovation in renewable energies could and should mark an opportunity for the region to shape the future of the planet as well as its own industries.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then let’s hope that current conditions give birth to a couple of rosy-cheeked, pioneering renewables technologies and market leaders. That the likes of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar are doing so much to further the research, development, understanding and education of sustainable energy is a regional source of pride and hope to be applauded.
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