::: Globalization, Energy and Environment :::

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE at the WARSAW SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, MAY 29-30, 2008

Globalization, Energy and Environment is an interdisciplinary Conference aimed at natural scientists, technologists, economists and the international social science and policy communities covering the direct and indirect environmental impacts of energy acquisition, transport, production and use. A particular objective is to cover the social, economic and political dimensions of such issues at local, national and international level. The technological and scientific aspects of energy and environment questions including energy conservation, and the interaction of energy forms and systems with the physical environment, are covered, including the relationship of such questions to wider economic and socio-political issues. Papers covering energy related aspects of wider environmental questions are included, such as the use of fuel wood and continuing impacts of de-forestation.

The traditional methods of energy planning aim at deriving policy decisions which result in meeting the country's energy demand at the lowest possible cost. These methods are often embedded in complex and large models representing detailed relationships in production, processing, transportation and consumption of various forms of energy. Most of these models are based on a single objective criterion, i.e., cost of energy supply, and cannot conveniently deal with other national objectives such as environmental conservation and security of supply. Also the majority of these models have limited capacity to deal with uncertainty and risk associated with international energy markets. The relatively recent awareness about environmental concerns have convinced the policy makers to extend their attention beyond the black-box, least-cost models and consider other aspects of their policy decisions. As such, the policy makers have now moved ahead of analysis in taking a more comprehensive approach to energy strategy. Consequently, the forthcoming Conference is inviting participants from all countries with contributions that would help us to outline more clearly the major debate around taming versus uncritically supporting globalization and global energy/environmental policy. The Conference aims to engage experts on exporting developing and transition economies as well as specialists from industrialized countries to share their experience on various aspects of the resource exploitation, its environmental consequences, on consumption patterns, and markets.

Conference Goals

A major aim of the Conference is to facilitate constructive and professional debate between scientists and technologists, social scientists and economists from academia, government and the energy industries on energy and environment issues in both a national and international context. It is also the aim to include the informed and environmentally concerned public and their organizations in the debate. Particular attention is given to ways of resolving conflict in the energy and environment field.

The Conference is to determine major factors affecting global energy market and their environmental consequences. In order to achieve this objective the Conference agenda is designed to cover a wide spectrum of problems and questions of global scope, regional perspective and of local importance, including issues of particular significance for European Union, Central Europe and Poland.