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27 November, 2006
Today starts the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The conference will run until Wednesday, 29 November. On that day, a second ICEM conference will start, the World Conference for the Chemical Industries.
Documents from the two ICEM World conferences
Click here for the ICEM Energy Conference
Click here for the ICEM Chemical Conference
ICEM sectoral conferences are held once every four years, providing ICEM affiliates from the respective sectors the opportunity to discuss and exchange information on global, regional, and national developments and challenges in their sectors.
The two conferences have their own specific agendas. Some issues, however, such as the increasing use of contract and agency labour and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, two global ICEM priorities, will be discussed at both conferences. Gender and health and safety issues will also be part of both agendas, as will be global framework agreements and global networks.
The energy conference will be opened by Lars Myhre, Chair of the ICEM energy section, Errol K. Mcleod, General President of OWTU, Hon. Partrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary.
Some of the main topics include: a general outlook for the global energy sector, climatic challenges, clean coal technologies, alternative sources, LNG, the challenge of renewable energies, the nuclear renaissance and the ICEM-ITF Global Oil and Gas alliance.
One specific subject of the Energy Conference will be a presentation by the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada on the booming oil extraction occurring in Alberta’s tar sands, with specific emphasis on the union’s agenda of assuring that refining occurs inside Canada.
On 29 November, the Chemicals Conference, the second of its kind ever, will start. The first two days of the conference will be devoted to the chemicals sector. The last day, 1 December, will deal exclusively with issues involving the pharmaceutical sector.
The chemical agenda includes, among many other things, company mergers and acquisitions, the increasing demands of China and the Middle East, REACH, the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
On Friday, 1 December, which is World HIV/AIDS Day, the conference will discuss the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry in delivering HIV/AIDS-drugs to the least developed countries on a fair and equitable basis.