There may be two speeds on the security plan energy

For two months, the accident on the Deepwater Horizon platform off the coast of the Gulf of the Mexico mobilizes the media around the world. He reminds us, on the one hand, our dependency on oil and, on the other hand, that the world of energy is a world of interdependence, where any local event a global resonances.

Make no mistake: to win the energy challenges that we have before us - ensure energy security, preserve the environment and reduce energy poverty - we will need all energies, including fossil fuels. It is therefore vital to ensure that all energy would be available and accepted by the population. This last point is crucial. Let us learn the lessons of the past.

The BP accident has this in common with Chernobyl thirty years it sum global players in the sector of profoundly review the terms of the safety of their operations. Of course, the priority is to quickly repair the damage and prevent other accidents of the same type recurrence, including by a moratorium on drilling in deep waters in the Gulf awaiting satisfactory answers to legitimate questions. However, these two measures will be enough to permanently strengthen the acceptability of oil platforms in the world or to reassure populations on the security of energy facilities.

If this oil spill is not the most important that the world has known, it is yet that which impactera the more oil in the long term by forcing players to redefine all the design, practice and control of safety procedures and facilities.

The BP accident is also comparable to that of Chernobyl insofar as it creates solidarity between the players in the industry. Security has become an issue and a common good that should learn to share - a single failure in one may cause a moratorium for all.

After the trauma of 1986, the nuclear industry is organized to ensure that any risk of solidary way. It put in place of the principles and good practices which could be modeled on the oil industry: in the first place, the redundancy of the independent security systems. On the BP platform, there were several levels of security, but certainly not sufficiently independent. In nuclear power plants, there is a doubling or even quadrupling of independent safety systems. Another track: an assessment of the systems by a third party outside, preferably a peer. The "peer reviews" allow an objective assessment by relevant actors, while limiting the risk of conflict of interest since the peers have a priori no interest to be conciliatory. Finally, the harmonization of international standards of safety. The aviation industry is an example to be followed in the matter. This measure should be still further in the nuclear industry.

There may be two speeds on the security plan energy. Security should no longer be discriminant, a tributary of the more or less strong requirements of actors. It has of course a cost. Thus, in France, the increasing requirement of security greatly increased the costs of nuclear power plants. But refuse to pay the price in today, it would be shifting the problem and allow a terrible debt to future generations who will repair our damage, pay infrastructure pharaonic to ensure the safety of aging facilities and repay our debt, in addition to other debts threatening already their standard of living futur It must be fair and ambitious national public policies can give the "true price" energy - integrating all costs, including those of security and CO2, to stimulate innovation and to prepare the transition to a sober carbon emissions economy. Finally, this accident can constitute the world of energy a salutary wake-up, but he knows the lessons.

In my view, it is urgent to establish a real capacity for coordination and international harmonization of the criteria of security for all the energies, with aim to share in full transparency and thus retrieve the competitive game.

The World Energy Council, which I Chair, to initiate dialogue between all stakeholders (industry, Government and experts) on this subject and will propose first tracks to implement concrete solutions, in its triennial Congress from 12 to 16 September in Montreal.