Global Energy Discussion March 2 at UW

Four international experts on energy and environmental issues are scheduled to discuss global energy challenges Monday, March 2, at the University of Wyoming.

The event, “Addressing Global Energy-Environmental Realities, Opportunities and Challenges from Multiple Disciplinary and Stakeholder Perspectives,” is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. in the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center auditorium. Sponsors include UW’s Center for Global Studies, UW’s School of Energy Resources and the Colorado European Center for Excellence.

“The world depends on access to cheap and reliable energy resources to maintain its economic growth, but erratic energy supplies and environmental costs repeatedly lead to political conflict,” the event organizers say. “The world’s energy future also is complicated by socio-economic and environmental tradeoffs, issues of sustainability, uneven distribution of resources regionally and globally, and particularly the concern over carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. Can recent scientific and industry advances -- as well as the unconventional energy boom occurring in the United States -- solve the globe’s energy problems?”

In addition, panelists are expected to discuss potential opportunities if the United States, European Union and China can collaborate on a common energy roadmap.

The panelists are:

-- Tanja A. Börzel, professor of political science who holds the chair for European integration at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focus and teaching experience lie in the field of institutional theory and governance, European integration and environmental cooperation.

-- Mikkal Herberg, research director of the Energy Security Program at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He also is a senior lecturer on international and Asian energy at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California-San Diego, and the BP Foundation Senior Research Fellow for International Energy at the Pacific Council on International Policy. He spent 20 years in the oil industry in strategic planning roles for ARCO.

-- Jari Kaivo-oja, research director at the Finland Futures Research Center at the University of Turku. His special fields are foresight methodologies in sustainability analyses, international energy economics and general societal development. He has special expertise in energy economics, innovation research, climate change and security politics. He is an author or co-author of 230 scientific publications.

-- Yu Hongyuan, professor and deputy director of the Department of International Organizations and Laws at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies. He is also an honorary fellow of the Center for International Energy Strategy Studies, Renmin University of China, and an honorary fellow of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. From 1998 to 2000, he worked with the administrative center for China’s Agenda 21 at the Ministry of Science and Technology. He is the author of numerous publications addressing topics including environmental change in the Asia Pacific and climate change policy in China.

This event is part of the Center for Global Studies 2014-15 workshop series, “Building Capacity for Our Sustainable Energy and Environmental Future – U.S.-E.U.-China Collaboration and Problem Solving Opportunities.” For more information, contact Jean Garrison, director of the Center for Global Studies, at (307) 766-6119 or garrison@uwyo.edu.