Back to the Future Energy Summit

Last week, the third annual World Future Energy Summit (WFES) descended on Abu Dhabi, pushing public relations consultants into overdrive and energy correspondents' noses to the grindstone.

Several of

's reporters were thus afflicted, and we apologise for neglecting this blog for the summit's duration. This year's WFES was, after all, the first major international event related to climate change since the ill-fated Copenhagen summit, and we were driven to distraction trying to stretch our limited resources among dozens of conference sessions, roundtables and interviews while trying to meet newspaper deadlines.

As you may have noticed, we are intermittent

. This is largely unavoidable, as no one has yet developed a reliable power source to coax around-the-clock output from energy writers. Strong, black coffee has its limitations - and was unavailable at the WFES after 5pm, long before our reporters had finished filing copy.

In theory, around-the-clock news output should be possible, as storage is available. Indeed, word storage technology has been around for centuries and now is at an advanced stage of development. The snag is that current words, once stored, are rapidly transformed into dated words, which our readers find less electrifying.

(Note to management: We need back-up power to keep

rolling.)

Be that as it may, The National's total energy output was impressive last week. If you are not a subscriber to the newspaper or a frequent visitor to its

, here is what you may have missed:

Saturday, 16 January:

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by Jonathan Gornall

- by Cassie Biggs

- by Zoi Constantine

- by Jen Gerson

- by Tom Ashby

Sunday, 17 January:

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by Jonathan Gornall and

- by Jonathan Gornall and

- by Paul McMillan

- by Loveday Morris

- by Emile Hokayem

- by Richard Stewart, Benedict Kingsbury and Bryce Rudyk

Monday, 18 January:

- by

and

- by

- by

- by

and

- by

- by Jean-Louis Borloo

Tuesday, 19 January:

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- by

- by

- by

- by Matt Kwong

- National Staff

Wednesday, 20 January:

- by

- by

- by

- by

- by

a

- by Matt Kwong

- by Paul McMillan

Thursday, 21 January:

- by

- by

- by

n and

- by

and Jonathan Gornall

- by Rupert Wright

- by Georgia Lewis

- by Georgia Lewis

- by Neil Vorano

- by Neil Vorano

Friday, 22 January:

- by

- by

a

- by Matt Kwong

Saturday, 23 January:

- By

e

- by Georgia Lewis and Neil Vorano