Connecting the world's urban and rural poor to reliable, commercial sources of energy. Providing competitive petroleum products to a rapidly growing transportation sector. Securing new land and water routes for transporting oil and natural gas. Developing more-effective ways to reduce emissions of carbon and other elements and compounds through best practices, new technologies, or sequestration. I have witnessed the anti-globalization marches on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization.
Protesters say that free trade fosters social inequality and limits personal opportunity.
I disagree that open markets are the problem, and with the solution to energy poverty that the protesters propose. At the 1998 World Congress in Houston, WEC concluded that because fully one-third of the world's population lacks access to affordable, clean energy, it is the social duty of businesses to do something about this. We also took up the challenge of the CEO of ABB to collaborate in technology transfer and investments with the goal of removing one billion metric tons of CO 2 from the atmosphere by 2005. This document will guide the agenda of the U.N.'s Conference on Sustainable Development held this month. It establishes the ways in which reaping the benefits of market reform in energy systems, coupled with appropriate regulations, regional energy cooperation, and diversified energy portfolios, will put energy on a the path to sustainability by 2020.