Falih called for more sensible, market-driven energy policies, and collaborative win-win research and development partnerships to achieve better economic and efficiency returns, and emphasized the need to balance the twin imperatives of economic and social development on the one hand, and environmental stewardship on the other. “Mistaken assumptions that once dominated the debate have been exposed as unrealistic and impractical and that provides us with a valuable opportunity to reset our collective conversation about energy and to conduct the discussion on a much more realistic basis,” Al-Falih said in his closing address. The three-day Energy Dialogue in Riyadh introduced The King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center's future-oriented, independent research center and think tank and its work on the development of sustainable energy and environmental policy options to key decision makers, private investors, academicians, public sector officials and energy thought leaders in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world.
