Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih led the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's delegation, participating in the G20 Ministerial Meeting of the ministers of energy and environment, on energy changes and global environment for sustainable growth, held in Karuizawa, Japan. Addressing the opening session, the Minister of Energy said that strategic investments should be provided to ensure optimal future mix of energy, including conventional energy sources, which are slow in investments in both production and upgrading, as well as new sources of energy, to ensure that the supply of energy is abundant, affordable, accessible and sustainable. Eng. Al-Falih pointed to the importance of facing the problem of continuous volatility and the absence of long-term predictability, in the world energy markets, especially in the oil sector, which negatively affects the world economy, especially the economy of developing nations and undermine long-term investments, noting the need to deal with the problem of climate change, in a balanced and comprehensive way. "The world should expand research and development financing to mitigate environmental impact of energy use, including developing new clean energy sources and enhancing environmental performance of conventional sources that make up the bulk of global energy consumption," he added. Eng. Al-Falih stressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's continued commitment to international agreements on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as its commitment to honor its pledges made during many conference meetings. He said that all these commitments are long-term, but in the near term, there must be a rapid and decisive response to the threats on energy supply, market stability and consumer confidence, adding that such threat was created by the recent hostilities and terrorist acts, in the Arabian Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula against a number of key global energy supply chains, including pipelines, tankers and other important infrastructures, resulting in short-term price increases and high levels of concern over the safety and durability of energy supply systems. As these events have implications on each G20 member states, given the high importance of energy, in their economies and societies, Eng. Al-Falih expressed confidence that the G20 countries shall be frank and direct, in their condemnation of these hostile and terrorist attacks and call for a move against any action that threatens the security of global energy supply chain and against the perpetrators and sponsors of such attacks.
