Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Faleh chaired here today, led the Saudi delegation participating in Abu Dhabi Week for Sustainability 2017, which includes world intellectuals, policy makers, investors, industry magnates, defenders of the environment. The forum addresses challenges facing the renewable energy sector and sustainable development. In the opening speech, in the name of the International Energy Forum, which is organized by the Atlantic Council entitled "Global Energy: the road to sustainability, in the future," the minister explained that the world will continue dependence on conventional hydrocarbon resources as fuel to stimulate the growing desire for development and innovation, and for a period of no less than a few decades before achieve a more balanced mix of conventional and alternative fuels, including renewable energy resources, adding that demand for energy will continue to grow and must be achieved, taking into account the choice of energy sources. The energy demand in the world today is about 280 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, over the next 25 years, we expect that this rate will increased by more than 40% to nearly 400 million barrels, which will increase the number of the world's population by about two billion people - with logical expectations for higher standards of living that require more energy, but partly governed by the awareness of the importance of improving energy efficiency, he remarked. Despite the great reliance on conventional fuels, the balance will be achieved as the world managed to address the serious climate change and embrace the call to action to reduce global carbon emissions, announcing that the turning point was the Paris Convention, which was signed in 2015 and ratified by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year, and we are required to implement the Paris Convention and reduce carbon emissions, especially, due to our leading role in this field, he stated. The Natural gas consumption, which is cleaner will be about 70% of the mix energy over the next decade, the highest rate among the Group of twenty, stressing the importance of the enormous renewable energy potential, noting that the expense of energy form the sun, for 90 minutes gives an excess of energy generated by 15 billion tons of oil equivalent, annually and gives more than the world needs, while the wind can provide an equivalent 146 billion tons of oil equivalent per annum.
