At the World Economic Forum President Sarkissian spoke about Armenia’s energy resources

President Armen Sarkissian, who is in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on a working visit, today participated at the discussions of Middle East and Northern Africa Conference of the WEF named New Energy for the Middle East.

At the meeting, the President spoke about energy sources in the contemporary world and in that context stressed the importance of “not to damage the nature” principle. Speaking about coal, oil, and gas as energy sources, the President of Armenia underlined the significance of using renewable energy. At the same time, he noted that nuclear energy also should be used. “Nuclear energy is important. Our past was dark because we were burning coal, organic resources. Today, through renewable energy sources, we are trying to add some green color to our gray existence to have an exclusively green and splendid future. The question is whether nuclear energy will be part of it, or not. My personal opinion is that it should be because it will expedite the entire process. No one has yet calculated mathematically damages to the planet, the environment, and the climate caused by burning fuel and coal. Damage to the climate will have a great impact on the planet,” President Sarkissian noted. In his opinion, nuclear energy has future.

“Like many other countries, Armenia has a strictly balanced energy portfolio, starting from the energy nuclear station. It is a station built back in Soviet time which has been working normally all these years and stood strong after two earthquakes. In Armenia, we also push forward with renewable energy. Armenia is exporting electricity,” President Sarkissian said.

He spoke of water as an energy source. “I would like to speak of water as an energy source. It is very important. All countries, which mention having rich natural resources, are rich with sun, wind, oil but not water while water is critically important because in 50-100 years it will become an energy source. It will be used not only for drinking but also for generating energy. I see Armenia as a part of the Middle East. Even though Armenia has neither oil nor gas, it has huge water resources. Unfortunately, we are probably using only 10 or 20 percent of our water resources, the rest is wasted. Water is important,” the President of Armenia said.

He stated that unless dramatic change or steps were made, the road of rejecting coal and switching to renewable energy would be very long, and in the process we would damage the environment and the climate. “Damage to the climate will not be a passive one; it will be dramatic, causing earthquakes, creating problems with food, water will reduce, there will be more deserts and tsunamis. We need to find other solutions, and these solutions could be based more on hydroenergy, new technologies. New technologies must be used, as well as artificial intelligence. These are small details which will be important tomorrow, in the 21st century. We shouldn’t disregard nuclear energy just because we are afraid of it. I agree with the notion that we don’t have much time. We need to carry out parallel processes, not only fighting against the use of coal but also by using oil and gas more efficiently, using renewable energy, hydroenergy, nuclear energy and use as much as possible new technologies and data management since we don’t have much time,” Armen Sarkissian said.