What the Davos Summit Told Us About Global Energy
The Davos Summit, a top tier World Economic Forum-hosted event in Davos, Switzerland, connected chief officers from major companies, politicians from all around the world and distinguished members of academia. The summit fueled innovative ideas regarding the state of energy.
Extreme weather, the ongoing debate on climate change, and natural disasters topped the list of global risks for 2019.
The topic of clean energy became more prominently discussed with Sir David Attenborough’s Crystal Award acceptance speech calling for action on climate change, oceans, and biodiversity.
Clean energy and climate change prevention were hot topics and were discussed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. Global plans of actions were discussed. Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe said climate actions would be a top priority at this year’s G20 and promised that Japan would work towards a globally committed plastic-free ocean.
Attenborough, a veteran nature program presenter urged business and political leaders at Davos to provide practical solutions for unlimited clean energy, to prevent climate catastrophe:
“If people can truly understand what is at stake, I believe that they will give permission to business and governments to get on with the practical solutions,” he said. “And as a species, we are expert problem solvers. We haven’t yet applied ourselves to this problem with the focus that it requires.”
During the summit, a panel titled “The Great Energy Transformation” spoke on the topic of clean and sustainable energy. The focus was to answer how leaders can move beyond political hurdles to create a clean, affordable and secure energy future. The first solution presented during the discussion was that clean the need for clean energy to save the planet is no longer a future problem but should be focused on today. Global energy markets are already seeing the impact of the competitiveness of renewables, while the fossil fuel sector is undergoing great tumolt from a financial point of view.
Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEP of ABB, stated that the ultimate goal is to decouple economic growth from environmental impact. According to Francesco Starace, the key to this process is “the digitalization of the electricity grid to address the demand for efficiency as well as for a large-scale development of e-mobility.” Not only are smarter storage systems needed, but also efficient smart devices for flexible network management.
Sustainability has always been an important interest with increasing sign of global warming and harm to this planet. Now countries are planning on acting on it. The discussions at the Davos Summit are evidence that the world is moving decisively in one direction, towards a future of clean, secure and affordable energy accessible to all.
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