Washington DC Global Leadership & Technology Exchange
9-11 November 2009

A key pillar of the GLTE model is the need for strong engagement between regulators and business leaders, in order to produce intelligent policy frameworks to accelerate low-carbon growth. We therefore devoted much of the Washington DC exchange to the interplay between business and government – focusing on what comes naturally from staging an event in this world capital.

A highlight of the DC exchange was the announcement of Peter Darbee's co-chairmanship of the Xyntéo-GLTE Low-Carbon Leadership Board. Peter Darbee is Chairman, CEO and President of PG&E Corporation, one of the US's largest utilities. Click here to read the press release.

Please find below an interactive programme with links to the presentations. Click here for the full agenda and short bios for all the speakers. Click here for a series of briefings which tackle three key challenges to building a low-carbon world.

Day 1: Monday, 9 November

Opening dinner, with speech “The Politics of Washington Politics” by Ambassador James R. Jones, CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies, former Chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange, former US Ambassador to Mexico and former US Congressman

Day 2: Tuesday, 10 November

Introduction to the Washington GLTE

Opening remarks by Dr Osvald Bjelland, Xyntéo Chairman, and introduction to the facilitators:
- Todd Benjamin, Senior Advisor, Xyntéo and former Financial Editor, CNN
- Johan Nic. Vold, Vice Chairman, Xyntéo

Working session 1: Towards a Sustainable Energy Mix: the Interplay between Business and Government

David Rodgers, Director, Strategic Planning & Analysis, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy [slides]
Helen Burt, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Pacific Gas & Electric Company [slides]
Dr Bryan Hannegan, Vice President, Environment & Renewables, Electric Power Research Institute [slides]

Working session 2: The Road to Sustainable Consumption and Production – Time to Re-think?

Dr Robert Traer, lecturer at Dominican University and author of “Doing Environmental Ethics” [remarks]
David Pumphrey, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Energy & National Security Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Dr Gabrielle Walker, BBC presenter and co-author of “The Hot Topic” [slides]

Showcase of GLTE Projects: Case Studies of Low-Carbon Collaboration

Introduction: Leveraging Projects to Create Growth Solutions for the Low-Carbon Economy
Dr Osvald Bjelland, Chairman, Xyntéo
Leadership through Rough Seas: Piloting Shipping to Low-Carbon Growth
Joint report (NSA and Xyntéo) about the implications of the low-carbon economy on the international shipping industry
Thor Jørgen Guttormsen, Vice President, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association
Minimising Emissions through Supply Chain Optimisation
Joint analysis (WWL, Tata Motors and Xyntéo) to identify potential carbon savings along the post-manufacturing value chain of Tata passenger cars
Stephen Cadden, Group Vice President, Logistics, Wilh. Wilhelmsen
IT for Greening
Partnership (TCS and Xyntéo) to identify ways of using IT to drive low-carbon growth
N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services
The Carbon Footprint of a North Sea Development
Collaborative project (Acergy, Statoil and Xyntéo) to map low-carbon pathways in the offshore supply chain
Bjørn Myklatun, Chairman of the Board, Acergy Norway
Siemens North Sea Energy Study
Collaborative project to explore how the energy resources of the North Sea could be leveraged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the cost of supplying energy to Europe
Dr Georg Fronja, Head of Strategy, Energy Sector, Siemens
Natural Gas as a Bridging Fuel to a Low-Carbon World
Joint study into the role of natural gas in helping to decarbonise the global economy
Dr Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman, Gazprom and Director General, Gazprom Export

Day 3: Wednesday, 11 November

Learning Cafe: Presentations and Q&A with low-carbon innovators

Geir Nårstad, Product Manager, Logit Systems
Michael Parrella, CEO, Gtherm
Kjell Olav Kristiansen, Director of Advisory Services, Point Carbon North America
Samir Menon, CEO, NatureFirst, TCS Ecological Sustainability Unit

GLTE Keynote Address: "Visions for a Low-Carbon US Economy"

Peter Darbee, Chairman, CEO and President, PG&E Corporation

Working session 3: The Role of the Multilateral Institutions in Building a Low-Carbon World

Vikram Widge, Global Head, Carbon Finance, International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) [slides]
Suman Bery, Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research
Professor Robert Socolow, Co-Director, Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University [slides]

Concluding Remarks