Knowledge sharing among needs to plot the future of energy

The world has to survive present day challenges to impact a future that serves all our energy needs. This was one of the messages from a Ministerial Panel Session, hosted as part of an ADIPEC 2022 Opening Ceremony that spoke of realism and optimism.

USA Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein said: “The world is facing extraordinary challenges from devastating war in Europe, to a pandemic that has altered our lives, to economic uncertainty. “Through all of this the one constant is a worsening climate crisis…we at this gathering, governments and companies, must all do our part.” Hochstein added: “This is a global crisis and, therefore, requires global solutions, so regardless of where you are on the energy spectrum, we must all invest and innovate towards achieving a more decarbonised world.”

The world has to survive present day challenges to impact a future that serves all our energy needs

H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, said that meant examining the “whole spectrum of energy” and confirmed the UAE was focused on diversifying energy sources and reducing emissions. Confirming his nation’s efforts ahead of hosting COP27 next week, H.E.Tarek El-Molla, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, said it was “working together in parallel” with other countries on the decarbonisation journey. “In order to make the transition, whatever your transition date is, you have to survive the present,” he said.
India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, H.E. Hardeep Singh Puri, said his country had managed to maintain petrol and gas supplies.

But he stressed “all policy decisions have consequences, direct and intended and unintended”, and sometimes positive such as India’s biofuels and vehicle electrification push, inward investment and countries looking to “alternative energy sources faster than originally envisaged”. Hochstein reinforced earlier sentiments saying there was a need to focus on doing things simultaneously, ensuring “we have sufficient energy supply to maintain global economic growth, including investment in carbon efficient production, and refining…at the same time accelerating the transition to a cleaner, healthier and more diversified and decarbonised energy system”.

Prior to the panel, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, outlined his country’s efforts and said: “We have a young ambitious population that will not stand us sitting doing nothing in preparing for their better future to come. Of ADIPEC, he added: “We need these events…we need the knowledge sharing.”