On Tuesday, 14 June 2016, the Energy Charter Secretariat hosted the first of a series of Expert Meetings on “Removing pre-investment barriers in energy” in Brussels.
The meeting was attended by 32 representatives of governments from Africa, Middle East, Asia, Caucasus, Europe and Latin America, as well as of regional and international organisations.
The Energy Charter Secretary General welcomed representatives from signatories of the International Energy Charter and from third countries and noted that:
"a key challenge for the Energy Charter Conference now is to ensure that the Energy Charter Treaty includes the main new energy actors in the world. Today the energy markets of Europe and Asia are increasingly linked to new regions like the Middle East, North Africa and Asia."
The Secretary General also emphasised that:
"investing in energy is one of the world’s greatest challenges. Governments need to signal to investors that they are ready for the inflows of capital targeting, reliable and sustainable energy. Special attention must be given to clean energy technologies, access to energy and improvement of energy connectivity."
The discussion focused on predictable rules on the establishment of foreign investors in order to mitigate investment risk and facilitate investment in the energy sector. Speakers illustrated policy options to promote investments and to remove legal and de facto barriers. Participants shared the viewpoint that predictable, transparent, reasonably stable and enforceable rules are key factors that encourage the sustainable energy investments required to achieve UNDSG7 universal access and energy transition under the Paris Agreement.
Key facts and experiences in promoting sustainable energy investment came out of the discussion. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group recalled their recommendations on the entry of foreign investors and on promoting clean energy investments. Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen described their respective domestic frameworks on the promotion of energy investment. Georgia, Iran, Brazil, Canada and the Dominican Republic shed light on pre-investment obligations under international agreements. The Council of European energy regulators (CEER), Mediterranean Energy regulators (MedReg), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) together with the investment promotion agency from Ghana and from Burkina Faso illustrated the central role on investment facilitation and regulatory cooperation in the implementation of predictable rules.
This was the first of a series of expert meetings which aim to prepare the groundwork for a debate on policy options to regulate and eliminate barriers to the entry of foreign investment in the energy sector. The next planned meeting open to experts from the industry, academia, think-tanks and civil society will be a side event to the UNCTAD World Investment Forum in Nairobi between 17 and 21 July 2016. The results of these expert meetings will be communicated to the Energy Charter Conference and will contribute to the debate on the modernisation of the Energy Charter.
