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Released: 29 April, 2003

Dhaliwal attends International Energy Agency meeting in Paris

PARIS — Canada has re-affirmed its commitment to working with international partners to further energy security and meet the challenges of climate change and sustainable development.

During a two-day meeting here of energy ministers from the countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Honourable Herb Dhaliwal, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, emphasized the importance to Canada and the global community of research and technological development for long-term security of energy supply and sustainable development.

“We will not meet our longer-term energy and environmental goals unless we fundamentally change our energy systems. I suggest that we, as energy ministers, signal to the world that we are moving collectively to address the research and development dimension of the energy challenges of the future, including supply security and climate change.”

At Minister Dhaliwal’s suggestion, ministers agreed to review the focus of the IEA’s cooperative research and development programs to ensure the further development of technologies in these strategic areas. In this context, key technologies discussed at the meeting included carbon dioxide capture and storage, and hydrogen.

Minister Dhaliwal also addressed IEA delegates about the importance of Canada’s oil sands to the long-term global security of oil supply.

“When the oil sands reserves in Alberta are taken into consideration, Canada is second only to Saudi Arabia in total proven world reserves,” he said. “This represents about 85 percent of the total IEA proven oil reserves.”

The final communique of the IEA meeting can be found at http://www.iea.org.

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