Live updates from Abu Dhabi as policy leaders gather for the Global Energy Forum

Call it a double whammy: The two-hit blow to the global energy system—dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine—is wreaking havoc, bringing uncertainty about the future of energy security and the pace of the energy transition.

But that’s only spurred the world’s most influential energy experts and policymakers to take another look at the needs of the energy system and devise new policies, practices, and standards to fill those needs. And from January 14 to 15, many of them are gathering at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum to lay out their solutions and call for urgent collaboration on improving energy security and accelerating progress toward climate goals.

Below are highlights from the event, hosted by the Global Energy Center in partnership with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and featuring leaders such as COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

The latest from Abu Dhabi

UK official: Cooperation on a low-carbon, secure energy future “makes us all more prosperous”

By Andrea Clabough

According to Grant Shapps—the UK secretary of state for business, energy, and industrial strategy—energy matters more than it ever has before.

Shapps’s message was part of keynote remarks he delivered at the Global Energy Forum, where he emphasized both what has and has not changed in the energy sector over the last year. He pointed to hard energy-usage choices that the world has faced as prices for fuels have skyrocketed and the world’s low-income economies have been forced to make difficult decisions. In addition, the worrisome acceleration of climate change has presented a constant threat as heat waves have scorched Europe, bomb cyclones have devasted the United States, and flooding has led to thousands of fatalities in Pakistan. 

But Shapps expressed his confidence in the future, arguing that “we will succeed as humanity” in fighting the existential challenge of climate change. He noted the growing number of entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide pushing ahead with crucial technological innovations, such as the recent nuclear fusion success at the United States’ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He lauded Britain’s rapid strides in building some of the largest wind farms in the world in the North Sea, which provide 86 percent of the United Kingdom’s electricity needs. These developments, he concluded, should give us all hope for the future. 

He cautioned, however, that “a fairer future is worth fighting for” and emphasized the need for expanding just transition initiatives, such as those in South Africa and Indonesia, to provide both climate and economic security (as well as needed job growth) to developing countries. Despite the world facing what he deemed a challenge no other generation has faced before, he said there are many reasons to be hopeful—and much work to be done.

Shapps’s remarks took place a day after the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates signed a Clean Energy Memorandum of Understanding to increase investment and cooperation between the two countries on energy security. “When it comes to climate change… none of us should have to settle for less. So working together really matters.”

COP28 president-designate: With the world “way off track” on Paris goals, “transformational progress” is needed

By Daniel Malloy

With a pivotal United Nations climate change summit set to take place in the United Arab Emirates at the end of this year, “the world is playing catch-up” to implement emissions-reduction goals, said UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al Jaber, the newly designated president of the summit. But, he added, there’s ample opportunity to accelerate new technologies and refashion old ones to reach net-zero emissions, a milestone that would represent “the greatest economic and human promise since the first Industrial Revolution.” 

In his first remarks since being named the incoming president of the twenty-eighth UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), Al Jaber spoke on Saturday morning at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, a two-day gathering of policymakers, government officials, and business leaders that sets the energy agenda for the coming year.

Al Jaber acknowledged that the world is “way off track” in hitting the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accords, intended to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

But in his first opportunity to set out the vision for the landmark conference—which he said will be a COP of “solidarity” and “action” as it engages in the first “global stocktake” progress report—Al Jaber offered a roadmap to the “transformational progress” he envisions.

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The 2023 Global Energy Agenda

By Landon Derentz, Christine Suh, Ameya Hadap, Paul Kielstra (Editors)

In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine undermined the global energy system’s return to pre-COVID normalcy, injecting turmoil and uncertainty into the sector. Russia’s gas cuts led Europe to compensate for the loss of energy supply by reverting to coal and oil, leading the global community to confront deepening tensions between national security, energy security, and climate action.

However, the crisis in Europe, despite causing an upsurge in carbon-intensive power, provided the world with fresh impetus to change the trajectory of the energy transition. In response, policymakers worldwide are hastening efforts to decouple their economies from foreign hydrocarbons and to decarbonize energy systems. Ultimately, the war may accelerate longer-term energy trends toward a more sustainable and secure system.

Against this backdrop, energy leaders head into 2023 with a greatly revised outlook from 2022, as revealed in the Atlantic Council’s third edition of the Global Energy Agenda. The publication includes an analysis based on our survey of energy stakeholders, representing a wide variety of professions across the sector from more than fifty countries. Complementing our survey analysis, a diverse group of experts, corporate leaders, and policymakers contributed essays that provide deeper insights on the tumult of 2022 and its implications for reshaping energy systems for the future.

Despite a year defined by complications to the energy transition, there is reason to be optimistic as the global energy community doubles down on in-tandem efforts to achieve climate goals and longer-term energy security for all.

Read the agenda