UN's top climate chief enriches the mix at UAE energy summit

ABU DHABI // The UN's top climate official, Christiana Figueres, will be among key figures arriving in the capital next month for the World Future Energy Summit.

The four-day event, which is hosted by the Abu Dhabi clean energy company Masdar, gathers politicians, business leaders and scientists for discussions on renewable energy and clean technologies, starting on January 17.

Ms Figueres is the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which guides the world's joint efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

She will discuss the most recent round of negotiations to stop dangerous changes to the climate, which were held in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month.

Analysts said the Cancun talks did yield some success, with countries agreeing to create a fund for the countries most vulnerable to climate change, and to establish measures to stop deforestation.

The most difficult question of how developed and developing countries are to share the burden of curbing carbon emissions has been left for a summit in Durban, South Africa, next year.

That question will, however, be put to top officials from 11 countries at the World Future Energy Summit, where organisers hope to generate ideas and build networks in the clean technology industry.

The ministers' panel will include Dr Farooq Abdullah, the Indian minister of new and renewable energy, Hassan Younes, the Egyptian minister of electricity and energy, and Norbert Rottgen, the Germanenvironment minister.

Officials from several oil-rich countries are also scheduled to be present, including Per Rune Henriksen, the Norwegian deputy minister for petroleum and energy and Iris Evans, the minister of international and intergovernmental relations for the western Canadian province of Alberta.