G20 Alarmed About Oil  

The SMH has an article on the latest G20 meeting and their concerns about oil.

The G20 group of rich and developing nations sounded the alarm over high oil prices but barely touched on the role a stronger yuan could play in easing world economic imbalances. "We are concerned that long-lasting high and volatile oil prices could increase inflationary pressures, slow down growth and cause instability in the global economy," the G20 said in a statement after two days of talks at a sprawling resort near Beijing.

The world's largest oil consumer, the United States, and its biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, were among the signatories to the statement, which vowed to promote energy saving and alternative sources of energy as well as to reduce oil subsidies. Saudi officials said they hoped a meeting of energy ministers in Riyadh in November would bring about the greater transparency in world oil markets that Western policy makers say is lacking.

Caio Koch-Weser, Germany's deputy finance minister, said substantial investment was needed in exploration and in refining capacity, while for consumers energy efficiency and conservation was now at the forefront. "What Kyoto may not have done in the US, prices at the pump will," Koch-Weser said, referring to America's failure to curb energy consumption in keeping with the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In a further illustration of policy makers' preoccupation with oil prices, Australia will put energy security for fast-growing powers such as China and India at the heart of the G20's agenda when it chairs the group next year. "Those economic powers, naturally, are going to be looking for resources and energy security to drive industrialisation and economic growth," Australia's treasurer, Peter Costello, said. "This will become a key question for the international community."