GRF-CFR-Columbia Universit
Joint Workshop on “Oil Price Fluctuations, World Economy and the G-20 Energy Agenda”
March 12, 2015
On March 12th 2015, Global Relations Forum, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)’s Center for Geoeconomic Studies (CGS) and Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy held a joint workshop entitled “Oil Price Fluctuations, World Economy and the G20 Energy Agenda”. The workshop brought together GRF members, some GRF Community members as well as representatives from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). As Turkey prepares for the first G20 Energy Ministers’ Summit, the workshop aimed to contribute to the G20 agenda by addressing the impact and policy implications of oil price fluctuations on global economic growth, fuel subsidies and renewables/efficiency.
After the introductory remarks of GRF Vice-Chairman and President Memduh Karakullukçu, the first session entitled “Impacting the Global Economy: Growth, Deflation and Financial Instability” was held under the moderation of Michael Levi, Director of CFR Center for Geoeconomic Studies. The speakers of the panel included Prof. Jason Bordoff, Founding Director of Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy; Dr. Sun Xiansheng, President of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Economics and Technology Research Institute; and Mr. Karakullukçu.
The second session entitled “Changing the Policy Landscape: Subsidies, Renewables and Efficiency” was moderated by Prof. Bordoff. The speakers were Ms. Laura El-Katiri, Oxford Energy Institute Research Fellow; Dr. Tatiana Mitrova, Head of Oil and Gas Department of the Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ERI RAS); and Mr. Levi. After the session, the workshop was concluded with the final remarks and suggestions of the speakers concerning the uncertain environment created by oil price fluctuations, and how the G20 agenda should address it.