by Andris Piebalgs

15-09-08 The last few weeks have been very intense for the international dimension of energy.
The month of September started with an Extraordinary European Council focused on the Georgian conflict. Those who doubted if Europe can talk with a single voice should doubt no more. Heads of State and Government sent a message of unity to the world, a message that is very much related to energy, as we will see. On one side, the negotiations for a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia are now blocked. There is therefore an urgency to implement the peace process in Georgia to come back to the negotiation table, and work towards a stable framework in EU-Russia relations, in the field of energy as well.

Secondly, the conflict has made evident the importance of Georgia as a transit country. Currently, the main transit routes between Europe and the Caspian run through Georgia. We all have an interest in working with Georgia to make it strong and secure, and it is therefore essential to make a substantial effort in support of its reconstruction, including energy infrastructure.
What about Russia? In my opinion we should continue to consider it as a reliable supplier. Even during the Georgian conflict, supplies from Russia to the European Union and also to the Caspian region were not interrupted. While we await the reopening of negotiations for the next PCA, we should continue our energy dialogue with Russia within the existing framework. I will meet my Russian counterparts in October for the Ministerial Summit of the EU-Russia dialogue in Paris and work with them, to our mutual benefit, to develop a constructive cooperation in our energy relations.

In fact, good news came from this front. The conflict between the shareholders of TNK-BP -- a Russian-European consortium and the 3rd oil producer in the Russian Federation -- seems to be moving towards a solution. I hope that soon a definitive agreement will be found and the oil of TNK-BP will come back onto the global markets.
TNK-BP negotiations dominated the front pages of many newspapers while I was in one of the main global economic arena: the Forum Villa d'Este that took place in a beautiful resort at the shores of Lake Como, in northern Italy. I was invited to participate in a debate on Energy and Climate Change with two eminent academics from the other side of the Atlantic: the Mexican Nobel prize and climate change specialist Professor Mario Molina and the energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins, Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Both concur that Climate Change needs urgent action, and that the main drivers of this action should be energy efficiency and low carbon energies. From their remarks I concluded that European Energy Policy should not be changed: it should be accelerated. Everything we can do to save energy, and move to a low carbon economy based on clean energy sources has to be done: the Planet needs it.

Probably the best place to see the urgency of our fight against climate change is Africa. I'm just flying back from an African tour through three very significant countries -- Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Burkina Fasso -- in the first visit of an Energy Commissioner to this vast and beautiful continent.
The trip started with the signature in Addis Ababa of a joint declaration on the Africa-EU Energy Partnership that will allow us to work on a concrete roadmap to develop our future energy cooperation as equals. I'm travelling with my colleague Louis Michel, development Commissioner, because we consider that a sound development policy should include energy. A society cannot advance if its members do not have not access to secure and affordable electricity and fuels.

Africa is also important for security of supply. It is not by chance that the second stop of my African tour was in Nigeria. Nigeria is an important supplier of oil and gas to the EU market exporting more than 20 % of its crude oil production and 80 % of its gas production to Europe.
EU oil companies have made significant investments in Nigeria in the past and are likely to invest more in large energy infrastructures which include gas liquefying plants and gas pipelines. New projects -- such as the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project, that may bring 20 bn cm of Nigerian gas through Niger and Algeria to Europe by 2020 -- could become key strategic infrastructures in the future. I think it makes perfect sense that we think more of Africa when we look for diversification.

However, personally, the African tour has more to do with development policy than with security of supply. In the last stop I visited a Commission funded solar program in Sigle, on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Fasso. Many people consider that first priorities for development policy are water sanitation, education and health. And I agree, but all these sectors need energy. In Sigle, solar panels are used to pump water from wells, and provide electricity to schools and health centres.
I am confident that the EU-Africa energy partnership will create the framework to attract substantial investment to Africa, for instance in interconnections and renewable energy, and with them, better water, better education and better health services.

And this can also be beneficial for Europeans. While I'm writing this, I'm flying back over the Saharan desert. As far as my eye can see, there is only a vast surface of empty land under a merciless sun.
This leads me to two thoughts. One, we must stop climate change and prevent further desertification in Africa. Two, solar energy needs basically sun and land and the Sahara has both in large quantities. May the Sahara be in the future a huge solar power plant for the South of Europe? Maybe, but this will be the subject of another blog entry.

Andris Piebalgs is Energy Commissioner of the European Union (EU).