On 2 and 3 February, executives of the leading companies in the energy market, representatives of international regulatory agencies and recognized international experts from academia and business fields around the world met at the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB) (PCB) on the III International Symposium Funseam. The gathering was organized by the Foundation for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (Funseam) and the Chair of Energy Sustainability at the University of Barcelona, affiliated to the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB). 

Latin American markets, their relations with the European markets and the presentation of sustainable energy projects were the focus of particular attention on the first day of this entrepreneurial symposium held on Monday, 2 February.

The opening ceremony featured presentations by the Spanish minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, and the president of Funseam and Enagás, Antonio Llardén. Soria stressed the importance of “economic and financial sustainability of the energy system” as the fundamental key to attracting investment and generating jobs” and recalled policies for energy and environmental sustainability developed by the central government such as the National Energy Efficiency Plan 2014-2020, which includes a series of initiatives to reduce 20% of energy consumption. The minister stressed the need for the energy system to be able to offer more competitive energy prices to compete on an equal footing with industry in other areas in the world. José Manuel Soria also recognized the task that Funseam is undertaking with the publication of the Observatory for Social and Corporate Responsibility, where the values of the indicators of energy companies and infrastructures are collected.

During his intervention, Antonio Llardén stressed the “triangle: market, sustainability and competitiveness” and said that “for the economy to recover it is necessary to initiate a process of re-industrialization”, which will required the energy sector to provide “a more affordable energy offer”, a point that companies in the sector are working on.

Next, the president of the Club for Energy, Pedro Miró, delivered the inaugural conference focused on the European energy policy. Miró explained what the main challenges in the energy sector were, highlighting the drop in oil prices, the role of the United States in the exploitation of shale gas, the agreement between China and the US to reduce emissions and the difficulty of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to secure oil supply. Miró also stressed the importance of being able to get competitive prices and development of indigenous energy resources, and the need to make progress in strengthening interconnections.

Then, Rosa García, president of Siemens Spain, analyzed the relationship between energy and new technologies, emphasizing the role of self-regulation to achieve sustainability and the challenges that  the energy sector is facing, mainly excess capacity, energy prices, climate change and public response, which will only be resolved with the addition of new technological developments.

The Deputy Director General of Energy of the European Commission, Christopher Jones, advocated in his presentation to continue with the measures laid down by the European Union, and acknowledged “there is still a long way to achieving the goals of sustainable energy”. Jones stressed that “continuing on the path to energy efficiency, achieving a greater contribution of renewable energies and continuing to work on the construction of the internal energy market are the only ways to go.”

The different tables of the conference  addressed, among other issues, the challenges of energy markets; transportation and distribution interconnections; and the competitiveness and sustainability of various projects carried out in Latin America. 

Antonio Brufau, president of Repsol, presided the closing of the conference, with the participation of  Francisco Salazar, president of the Latin American Association of Regulatoy Agencies for Energy and the Energy Regulatory Council, who explained the key to the opening of the energy sector in Mexico, including oil, gas and electricity, to private capital.

III International Academic Symposium Energy Markets and Sustainability

Today´s conference, the III International Academic Symposium Energy Markets and Sustainability, was organized by the Chair of Energy Sustainability of the UB and sponsored by Funseam. The highly academic event was opened by the rector of the University of Barcelona, Dídac Ramírez, bringing to a close to two days of debate on which the challenge of achieving the objectives of the European Union’s for a unified energy market applying higher levels of security of supply and new proposals on energy policy to strengthen competitiveness, were heartily discussed.

Throughout the conference, experts from around the world debated how changes in the gas and electricity markets affect prices; interconnections and security of supply and assumable policy measures. The event featured the participation of representatives from highly acclaimed academic institutions such as the London Business School, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, DIW Berlin, University of Groningen, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, University of Warwick, Trinity College Dublin, University of Coimbra institutions and Energy Sustainability Chair of the UB

The opening session was given by David Newbery, director of the Energy Policy Research Group at Cambridge University, one of the most renowned international experts who has advised several countries in their processes of energy market liberalization. Newbery delivered an eloquent statement on the importance of security of supply and the role that capacity auctions and interconnections have for the attainment of these processes.

Maria Teresa Costa Campi, professor in the Department of Public Economy, Political Economy and Spanish Economy and director of the Chair of Energy Sustainability of the UB, who also took part at the opening ceremony with a brief presentation as keynote speaker, was in charge of delivering the closing speech.