G7 Energy Ministers Meeting

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2014 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)]

On 5 and 6 May I attended a meeting of G7 Energy Ministers, hosted by Italy in Rome, to discuss energy security. These discussions took place against the backdrop of developments in Ukraine. The G7 expressed concern about the energy security implications, as a consequence of Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The UK argued that we need a more energy-secure future, meaning that no single state or supplier can use energy as a weapon. The G7 has agreed to do what is needed to achieve a systematic, enduring step change to improve energy security—not just for the nations in the G7, but for our friends and allies, with a particular focus on Ukraine and its eastern European neighbours.

The principles that were agreed to guide the G7’s work on energy security were transparent competitive energy markets, diversification of energy sources, an accelerated transition to a low-carbon economy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, investment in clean energy technologies, improved infrastructure and robust emergency response systems.

We committed to take immediate action to complement the European Commission’s work to develop energy emergency plans for winter 2014-15, to exchange best practice on energy security vulnerabilities, to provide technical assistance to Ukraine, and to ask the International Energy Agency to work in close collaboration with the European Commission to consider options that the G7 could take to improve gas security.

We also agreed that this should be the start of a process, which G7 leaders would consider when they meet in Brussels on 4 and 5 June 2014.