Currents Podcast: Dr Angela Wilkinson on humanising energy and affecting change

Currents Podcast: Dr Angela Wilkinson on humanising energy and affecting change

Click here to listen to the episode on the NRF website.

I recently joined Norton Rose Fulbright’s Todd Alexander to discuss the World Energy Council’s mission and our vision on humanising energy.

We discussed the many parallels between the early 1920s - when the Council was founded - and today. Back then, the world was re-emerging from the misery of the Great War and the Spanish Flu. It was an era of energy for peace, when the promise of harnessing modern energy was the foundation of hopes for a brighter future for all of humanity.

Now, too, the Council sits at the centre of a rapidly changing world energy landscape, where the drive is for a faster paced global energy transition that secures energy for people and planet - better lives and a healthy planet, to be more precise! 

But even though global energy transition is not the destination for human progress - people are still reaching for the stars - access to modern energy for all is still not guaranteed and the post-crisis context raises big questions about affordability and how to manage costs to society of accelerating the pace of the whole system turnover. More clean, affordable and reliable energy - in the form of heat, power, liquids fuels and storage - is needed to secure the development and wellbeing of billions more people around the globe. 

This is the key message behind the Council’s vision on ‘humanising energy’ - engaging with the increasing people diversity in energy, meeting the need for more equitable and affordable access to clean energy, and better preparing for a next phase of disruptive demand-driven solutions.

During the interview, I also highlighted the need for wider energy literacy. Energy is a social good and there is no one-size-fits-all. Diversity in energy solutions is the key to addressing the connected energy challenges faced by different energy societies around the world. For people to make better choices, we need to develop energy literacy or risk divisive and simplistic narratives. 

The Council is the open-to-all, neutral and independent world energy community. I am proud to be leading our practical, community-based energy charity at this moment in history. Trust is becoming the biggest constraint on human development and progress and new solutions are not all about more technology and money, but involve more honest dialogue, greater transparency and integrity.

[Click the image below to listen to the episode on the NRF's website]

About The Currents Podcast

The Currents Podcast features in-depth discussions on the latest developments in project finance. The podcast is hosted by partner Todd Alexander, who interviews key business leaders and policy makers to investigate important trends affecting the energy and infrastructure space.