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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Leaders of the transition
6/3/2024
10 min read
To understand what makes International Energy Week so compelling, look no further than some of the key speakers on Day One of the 2024 event in late February. New Energy World Features Editor Brian Davis highlights some of the thought-provoking issues expressed.
Controversy was never very far away at International Energy Week 2024. When Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a former Energy Institute (EI) President, was asked privately by Malcolm Brinded (also a former EI President) if he was optimistic or pessimistic about the energy transition, his answer was: ‘A bit of both’.
Indeed, his keynote kicked off with a bleak picture of ‘losing warm water corals if we don’t change course, while global emissions continue to climb’. On the plus side, Skea noted that the IPCC has identified over 20 countries with sustained reductions in emissions over a decade.
Skea emphasised that most of the world’s emissions are now covered by net zero targets for the second half of the 21st century. What’s more, there have been ‘incredible falls’ in the cost of renewables during this period, with now more than 10% of the world’s electricity coming from wind and solar.