Faith Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (AIE) and Naturgy President Francisco Reynésthey have participated in the eighteenth edition of the cycle of high -level Energy Prospective conferences, organized by the Naturgy Foundation and Iese Business School. In his speech, Birol presented the three main challenges facing the global energy sector, underlining the need for international cooperation to address them, despite the complexity of the current geopolitical context.
Birol first highlighted supply security as a strategic priority. In a moment of high geopolitical volatility, the expert said that guaranteeing energy supply, both traditional sources and new generation technologies, is crucial. This implies ensuring access to critical minerals necessary for emerging technologies.
The second challenge, According to Birol, it is the Climate change. Although The energy sector advances towards decarbonization, the increase in climatic risks continues to mark the agenda. The head of the International Energy Agency emphasized that, as extreme climatic events increase, the need for solutions that mitigate the impact of climate change becomes even more urgent.
Finally, Birol addressed energy poverty in developing countries, highlighting the serious situation in regions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, where 80% of families depend on firewood to cook, which generates premature deaths, mainly among women. According to Birol, it is essential to work to provide access to cleaner and more efficient energy sources, which would contribute to improving the living conditions of millions of people.
In addition to these challenges, Birol reflected on the energy future of Europe, highlighting that the continent has a window of opportunity with natural gas, whose prices are expected to decrease in the coming years. However, he also stressed that Europe must focus on pragmatic energy policies that favor the fight against climate change, supporting and promoting renewable energies such as solar and wind.
The importance of networks in the energy transition
The new era of electricity raises doubts about the elements associated with electrification, as is the case of the distribution networks that they are, for the executive director of the International Energy Agency, the “Achilles heel” of what the IEA calls the new era of electricity.
Although it does not question the speed in the development of generation projects, it considers urgent to face the construction and development of the networks that are sometimes a bottleneck for the implementation of new facilities. In his opinion, the solution would go through the simplification of the processes and the regulation associated with the networks without compromising the quality standards.
For his part, Francisco Reynés, Naturgy Executive President, also referred to the three great challenges facing the energy sector, “the trilema of finding a clear path to decarbonization without losing sight of the fact that energy prices do not deteriorate the competitiveness of the industry and the affordability of energy by families, and always prevailing a clear objective that is not to put the energy supply at risk”.