"A year of impact and change" - EI President Steve Holliday FREng, FEI

EI AGM Webinar 2020 Report - Steve Holliday FREng FEI, Energy Institute President

EI during COVID-19

A difficult time for members and energy sector generally.

COVID-19 has wreaked personal and economic tragedy the world over. Many have suffered the loss of loved ones; few have been spared its impacts entirely. The restrictions in place to limit its spread are the most draconian seen in peacetime. We’re seeing tens of thousands facing losing their jobs – particularly in oil and gas.  

First I’d like to pay tribute to Louise and the staff team at the EI. Despite the impracticalities of being home based and needing to rethink the usual ways of working, they have shown stand-out professionalism, resilience and creativity.

Our response has been on three levels:

1. Pastoral support for members

Providing support where it’s needed, whether that’s:

-direct contact with older members, many of whom have been shielding in isolation

-the 24/7 Benevolent Fund advice line for members who need help with personal, financial or legal issues.

-our dedicated COVID-19 support web page

-Outreach through our special member survey, which has helped us understand the pressures you our members have been under and how we can help you more in the future.

One small thing I’m pleased to say we are able to do in the circumstances is to freeze our membership subscriptions for the coming year.

1. Technical support for industry

I’m proud to work in a sector that’s playing an indispensable role keeping energy supplies flowing.

The EI’s role in bringing together expertise to tackle shared challenges is proving invaluable in responding to the needs of the energy industry and workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’re working with members to apply tried-and-tested health and safety practices to the new hazards created in the workplace by COVID-19. This includes:

-guidance on social distancing and hygiene in conventional and renewable energy facilities

-technical support for the aviation industry dealing with the grounding of two thirds of the global fleet – some 18,000 aircraft.

-and on the ‘new normal’ for companies navigating the return to work.

1. Lockdown friendly digital content and activity

We took the call early on to harness digital channels to provide continued and new access to the latest in the world of energy.

Our EI LIVE webinar series has been central to this. Since March we’ve had more than 2000 people tune in to gain direct, live access to experts in diverse fields. I was pleased to chair two – on hydrogen, net zero.

“A year of change and impact”

I’m proud of the Institute’s response to the pandemic, but I’m prouder still, when I look over the list of achievements against our operating plan that it’s hardly dented our ambitions.

It’s been a year of change and impact for the Energy Institute.

My sense of the past year is that the EI has started to assert a new confident role in the context of what we on Council see as the global emergency of climate change on the one hand, and the need to achieve universal access to energy on the other.

The EI is determined to be where energy professionals are – so we continue to support those working to produce and manage conventional fuels safely and efficiently - but we’re also determined to be where energy professionals are headed.

And the messages we get from you our members, our company partners and wider society are clear – that we need to be part of the future story of energy.

So you’ll see we’re also pivoting activities towards technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, both in how we use fossil fuels, in cleaner renewable alternatives and on the demand side.

You’ll have seen some of the highlights of this past year on the slides as we were getting ready to start this meeting…

I don’t have time to cover all of them, but let me highlight three important things:

IP Week

Nothing has symbolised the changes in our sector and in our own role more than this year’s IP Week.

Putting the climate emergency centre stage at the flagship international conference for the first time, the EI convened senior leaders from industry, environmental NGOs, investors, government and academia for dialogue centred on the vital role oil and gas sector needs to play in the global response to climate change.

The markedly different agenda and tone adopted by the EI for this year’s IP Week conference in February has attracted positive comment both inside and outside the industry.

Next year’s conference will build on IP Week 2020. We aspire for IP Week to be the pre-eminent event for thinking, discussing and creating collaboration in tackling the dual challenge of economic development and climate change.

Toolbox

…has in a matter of months become the EI’s flagship digital platform for health and safety lessons from incidents.

An expanding community of contributors from within our partner companies, initially on the oil and gas side, now also wind energy, and much of the content relevant to other hazardous situations across energy and beyond.

And with truly global reach and relevance – it’s already in English and French, soon to be Spanish and translated into a further 5 languages before the end of the year.

This is an asset to the EI and to our industry.

Net zero

We’re taking a lead in our own house too...

The Energy Institute has confirmed its trajectory towards ending the impact of its central operations on the climate well before 2050. The Council of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team agreed in May on initial science-based targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in line with the Paris Agreement.

The emissions covered by the targets include those relating to the EI’s London head office and business travel undertaken by staff. During 2019, the baseline year from which progress will be measured, a total of 358.1 tonnes of CO2 equivalent were emitted in the course of these activities.

Adopting the most ambitious science-based methodologies applicable to these categories of emissions, the EI has committed to a reduction of almost 68% by 2035, an ambitious trajectory that sits with our leadership on these issues.

It will set up the EI to reach net zero well before 2050.

We’re now developing plans for the delivery of the emission reductions required and conducting further work to understand the indirect impact of the EI’s activities, in particular scope 3 emissions relating to events. These will be considered for inclusion in reporting in future years, following engagement with the EI branch network.

Other

I’ve barely touched on what’s been achieved. There are new technical projects in hydrogen, CCUS, energy storage, expanding our footprint, our relevance to a broader membership.

This alongside what I’m told is business-as-usual, but it’s anything but usual in my eyes to have published 67 guidance documents since our last AGM and we are already ahead of schedule for this calendar year!

Our membership and professional affairs team has also been delivering, innovating to ensure the benefits of membership and the member journey continue to improve. We’ve seen the relaunch of the mycareerpath tool, the launch of the Benevolent Fund advice service I mentioned earlier, and piloted a fast track route to membership for previously registered professionals. This alone has brought in nearly 150 highly experienced applicants from every part of the energy sector, attesting to the EI’s growing reputation, appeal and relevance.

The coming year

We already know that the coming year will be difficult to navigate. We don’t know when we will be able to comfortably return to face-to-face meetings. Indeed I suspect we’re all so versed in video conferencing, this will be a component of our events for the long term.

But our ambitious programme of change and impact will continue.

In addition to continuation of the projects already mentioned and you’ve seen on the slides earlier, I’d like to announce today two new initiatives.

1. Generation 2050

From today, the EI is embarking on an extended programme of activity known as Generation 2050, aimed at providing a platform for young energy professionals from around the world to have a louder voice in the big global debates about climate change and access to energy.

Climate change is an intergenerational emergency – young people are by far the most concerned about it and will be most affected by it. Professionals under the age of 35 working in energy today will be the industry’s leaders in 2050, they will inherit a sector which will be judged on how it has responded. Our Generation2050 project is a platform for their views and opinions, a bridge between today’s and tomorrow’s’ energy leaders.

At the heart of Generation 2050 is a mass, global survey of young energy professionals . That’s launching today. Later there’ll be a dedicated season o the EI’s Energy In Conversation podcast and a range of other activities with a growing number of supporting partners and networks.

I hope some of your have also registered for the Generation 2050 launch webinar that follows this AGM, chaired by Sinead Obeng AMEI, chair of our Young Energy Professionals Council.

I’m proud to be making space for young professionals in our events programme.

2) The President’s Award

Many of you will know we have in the past chosen this time of year to honour outstanding achievement by individuals in our field with awards named after our past Presidents Lord Melchett and John Cadman. Indeed this has been the case since 1930.

I am delighted today to announce Council’s decision to build on this rich history with a successor award that fully acknowledges the unified nature of the global energy system.

A new Energy Institute President’s Award will in future be made to recognise outstanding achievement in the energy industry. It will be made on an international basis to an individual whose work has brought benefit to society. Recipients will have contributed to addressing solutions relevant to global energy challenges, in particular combatting climate change and opening up universal access to energy.

Our intention is to continue the commemoration of outstanding achievement as successor to the Cadman and Melchett Awards and, as with those previous awards, the President will hosts a lecture for the recipient to share their work and celebrate receiving the award.

More detail on the nomination process in due course.

Volunteers

I’d like to finish with something we say every year, but is ever vital and I want to really hit it home today:

I would like to thank the 2,000 or so volunteers that contribute their time, energy and expertise to the EI’s work – on our technical committees, branch committees, event programme boards, our professional assessors, on our Council of Trustees and in countless other ways.

People like Colin Black MEI and Robert McLean CEng MEI who have both recently received their Awards of Council and Gordon Coomber MEI on his Lifetime Contribution Award.

None of these volunteers get paid for their efforts. I can’t ask for a round of applause, but I’m sure you all join with me in expressing gratitude.