Challenge to sustainable energy discussed in Expo 2017

Ministers and secretaries from governments around the world on Sunday met with energy business leaders and international energy organisations in Expo 2017 at Astana, Kazakhstan to discuss the challenges of sustainable energy.

The last day of the expo-opening weekend ushered in the Eighth International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development at the Congress Centre.

In a ceremony after a day-long ministerial dialogue, Kazakhstan Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev, UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova, and UN ESCAP Executive Secretary Shamshad Akhtar invited all the heads of delegation participating in the forum to adopt a ministerial pledge.

The delegations pledged to, among other things, support the development of sustainable energy action plans, encourage the establishment of a UN centre for green technology in Astana, Kazakhstan and to participate actively in international dialogues on energy policy and technology.

“To avoid exceeding the amount of carbon that can be emitted in consistence with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and to set the stage for future reductions in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, all options for reducing net carbon emissions must be developed and pursued urgently to reduce energy’s net carbon intensity. The [present] rate of improvement in energy efficiency, deployment of net low carbon energy solutions, and the provision of sustainable access to modern energy services are insufficient,” pointed out the revised draft pledge released by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

But the world expo is not only about promoting ideas for renewable energy but actualising those concerns into real world actions.

Meanwhile, with an eye beyond the end of the World Expo 2017, the Museum of Future Energy has been planned as a permanent installation inside the giant sphere at the centre in the expo ground.

Seven of the sphere’s levels are dedicated to real and proposed technologies that work toward a sustainable, renewable energy, and toward exploration of the natural sciences to that end.

The Museum of Future Energy houses a planetarium showing the birth and evolution of the universe, a 720-degree video experience on the sun, a ‘Home Hut’ exhibit which integrates various biomass energy technologies for everyday living, a plethora of wind turbines, wave energy generators and more.

The eighth level of the sphere is currently exhibiting ‘Future Astana,’ an ambitious display of the so-called ‘Smart City’ that Astana could be by 2050.

The World Expo 2017 boasts 115 national pavilions as well as 22 pavilions by various international organisations.

One of the largest pavilions, Russia’s contribution to the expo, focuses on the Arctic, with an emphasis on conservation.

The pavilion shows short films on endangered animals such as the amur, or Siberian, tiger, polar bears and more. Additionally, the pavilion has large models of icebreaker ships moving through water from the Arctic Sea, and in one cold space, a chunk of a three meters tall real iceberg.

The Eighth International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development lasts until June 14. The World Expo 2017 ends on September 10.