OVERHEARD – Highlights from the Energy & Climate Summit
Each year, Chatham House brings together key stakeholders to discuss the most pressing global climate and energy issues. In case you missed last week's conference, we're bringing you some anonymised highlights.
Dan Quiggin chairs a discussion on geopolitics. Photo: Asya Ostrovsky via LinkedIn
Last week, Chatham House hosted its annual Climate & Energy Summit, offering an invaluable state-of-the-planet analysis. Discussion ranged from the securitisation of energy systems to cross-border restoration of water systems in the Middle East. As well as offering deep dives into specific topics, the broader arc of conversations highlighted both the fault lines and emerging dynamics of international affairs at this critical juncture in the transition.
In the spirit of the Chatham House Rule – and by way of Walter Benjamin’s legendary Arcades Project – let us tell that story through the anonymised quotes of the people who were there. Unattributed. Edited for clarity. And maybe just-a-little-distorted by our too-frequent taste-tests of the climate-resilient coffee served up on the day (thanks Kew Gardens!). Here’s what went down...
Innovation in adversity
As with most events this year, discussions were coloured by the rapidly shifting foundations of long-established international dynamics of collaboration. Whilst some speakers created space to recognise what might be being lost, others sought to highlight the possibilities opening up during this fluid moment.
“How do I feel when we look back on the decade since the Paris Agreement? We knew what was coming, but the future came to meet us earlier than we expected. And it took us too long to internalise what we agreed... We moved too slow...”
“Yes. Things feel more difficult now. But difficult geopolitical environments often generate more collaboration, not less. And scarcity is a powerful incentive to collaboration.”
Ana Yang, Ana Toni and Rachel Kyte opening this year's conference. Photo: Ana Yang via LinkedIn
“When one node shuts down in a complex system, other nodes and areas pick up the slack. We need a diffuse system of scientific diplomacy. There are examples already – like the Copernicus Programme – that show us the way.”
Choosing the paths we walk along
For decades, different groups across government, business and civil society have advocated for radically different pathways for the transition. During the conference, we watched familiar debates tackled with a new sense of energy – driven not only by the urgencies of the moment, but also the consequential decisions around climate finance being made in the coming year. What solutions get supported by growing streams of climate finance, and who gets left behind?
“Humans? We’re terrible at predicting the future. We need to accept this and act accordingly. We need to hoard our choice flexibility.”
"We should remember the sheer scale of the fossil fuel industry. Its future depends on carbon capture and removal. And there is no such thing as a silver bullet – but there are such things as bad policies and bad choices. Choosing to emit at accelerated rates on the expectation that someday someone else will clean up the mess? That is a bad policy."
Dan Quiggin chairs a discussion on carbon capture. Photo: Richard Delevan via LinkedIn
“Regional groupings are much less supported financially – investment tends to be national and then cascaded into local systems. Regional groupings often get lost in the process, and this needs to change.”
“Nature-based solutions are ground zero for how we learn to re-engage with adaptation."
Ruth Townend chairs a discussion on adaptation. Photo: Katie Kelly via LinkedIn
“Given the amount of degraded land in the Southern Hemisphere, there is a huge amount of impact to be driven by low tech restoration and basic production principles. There is a huge conversation about how much effort should be directed to leading edge tech versus these kinds of practices.”
Relational aesthetics
As multi-decade frameworks and norms are placed under intense pressure, discussions highlighted not only the changing logics of nation-state collaboration, but the ways in which new vectors of collaboration between governments, business and civil society are emerging or revived by a changing geopolitics.
A Kew Gardens information stand at the conference. Photo: Victoria Harrison Neves via LinkedIn
“We’re definitely entering a period of muscles for minerals...”
“Climate change creates structural scarcity, and a redistribution of species, and niches of habitation. Power and economies will realign to sources of niches.”
Clover Hogan and Laurie Laybourn talk about flipping the script on climate change. Photo: Rheea Soppelsa
“Our current energy systems are vulnerable because they are centralised. Our adversaries don’t want the energy transition to succeed because it will take away a key vulnerability.”
“Right now, if a government or institution fails, we don’t hear about it, and we lose the opportunity to learn. We need to find better ways to fail together. This is a crucial mechanism.”
Mike Hemsley chairs a discussion on accelerating the energy transition. Photo: Energy Transitions Commission via LinkedIn
“If you are a business, the least effective way you can have an impact is if you stay within your sector. Particularly adaptation: sector-by-sector adaptation does not work. We need a realignment to geospatial perspectives.”
Want to hear more? Check out the full Summit programme on the main Chatham House site.
