Energy efficiency session—The world federation of scientists international Seminars, Erice, Sicily, August 2011

The World Federation of Scientists (WFS) held its 44th Session—The International Seminars on Planetary Emergencies and Associated Meetings, in Sicily, with a theme of ‘‘The Role of Science in the Third Millennium’’. It was presided over by Prof. Antonino Zichichi from CERN. There were five parallel sessions of the Planetary Monitoring Panels (PMP) on 19th August, covering: Energy, Pollution & Water, Mitigation of Terrorist Acts, Information Security and Limits of Development. The International Seminar commenced on the 20th August and ended on the 23rd and covered six topics: Science in the Third Millennium, Climate, Information Security, Energy, Pollution and Water. The Annual WFS meetings are usually held between 19 and 23rd August in the attractive settings of the ancient City of Erice high in the Sicilian Mountains. It is by invitation only, this year there were more than one hundred participating scientists, from the five continents including 30 US scientists, many with their spouses. Over five working days there were more than one hundred papers presented and discussed covering state-of-theart scientific contributions, making this Seminar one of the world’s most prominent interdisciplinary scientific annual encounters. What are of interest to us here are the energy sessions, which attracted more papers and participants than other discipline. Beside the presentations in the Energy PMP on the 19th, there were also three plenary sessions devoted to energy. The first plenary was chaired by Prof. W. Fulkerson and focused on the Global Energy Issues after Fukushima. The Fukushima nuclear accident dominated the meeting and was thoroughly discussed, both causes and consequences and the lessons to be learned. There was a consensus that this affair could have been avoided by proper planning and foresight taking into consideration historic records of earthquakes and tsunamis on the Japanese coast. It was the eleven meters’ high tsunami that arrived one hour after the earthquake that caused much of the damage, the earthquake itself also caused initial damage which then escalated. Although this accident rendered a severe blow to the nuclear industry and its future outlook, the world is unlikely to see the end of nuclear energy. Those countries that have developed nuclear programs prior to this accident will press ahead with their programs, particularly China, Korea and India. The second Plenary was chaired by Drs. C. Difiglio and L. Everett from the United States. It was focused on Unconvential Natural Gas, mainly shale gas, its benefits and risks. The unconventional gas potential world-wide was discussed with its implications to energy security particularly in North America, its environmental impacts and contribution to the global GHG emissions. The existence of this newly highlighted gas source has stabilized gas prices in many parts of the world, replaced coal plants particularly in the United States, and slightly helped with the containment of GHG emissions. The third Plenary was chaired by Dr. Hisham Khatib of Jordan, where three papers were presented. The first paper referred to