Change is Rarely Easy

During the Forbes Sustainability Summit, leaders talked a lot about "urgency." And, the talk on the Energy Transition, touched on challenges of using aging, existing infrastructure and then swiftly moved on, to query how we can ‘future-proof’ new infrastructure, as well as questioning how can we get faster at implementing new infrastructure and technologies.

It reminds me of the WEF Insight Report titled, ‘Fostering Effective Energy Transition’ that looks at how ‘ready’ countries are at transitioning their energy systems.

It suggests that to achieve an effective transition, countries must maintain momentum in their transition journey. And, it's thought that a country's efforts to transition will be determined by three performance dimensions:

▶️ Equitableness - to what extent is the in-country energy system able to offer affordable access to clean and modern forms of energy
▶️ Security - to what extent is the energy supply reliable and resilient
▶️ Sustainable-ness - to what extent is that energy system efficient, and how much progress has been made towards decarbonizing it, or using clean energy instead


It’s suggested that the following five enabling factors determine the extent to which an energy system is equitable, secure and sustainable. And so, balanced engagement across all factors will determine how effectively the transition happens.

1️⃣ Regulation and Political Commitment
2️⃣ Finance and Investment
3️⃣ Education and Human Capital
4️⃣ Infrastructure
5️⃣ Innovation

As the diagram indicates, the transition also requires a high degree of connectedness and collaboration to be successful - another theme from today’s talks