Mirage and Momentum: the paradox of progress

This article was originally published by World Energy Council Secretary General and CEO, Dr Angela Wilkinson, on LinkedIn.

As I continue my ‘seeing is believing’ learning journey - Panama, Japan, China, Middle East, then back to Europe - I’ve come straight from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi - from FII9 to ENACT.

I’m mind-boggled – by the sheer diversity perspectives and experiences. It’s not easy to see the wood for the trees.

The optimistic trees are easy to spot: AI announcements, hydrogen deals, trillion-dollar energy transition funds. The wood - the deeper human story - is harder to see. And I’m not the only one feeling this. In quiet conversations between stellar sessions, people admit they feel the same. There’s brilliance everywhere, but no room to breathe, no time to refresh common sense.

The winds of change are blowing from the East’s, and whilst no great winds blow in the Gulf, the sands are shifting with the connections of energy, finance and digital gravity. This isn’t Silicon Valley. It’s a new kind of oasis — a vortex of power, capital and technology and spiralling at speed.

At FII9, I took part in two sessions: Board of Change Makers Conclave: Financial Markets, The Energy Trilemma, Private Capital; and, Board of Changemakers – Energy Trilemma. We talked about fast and fundamentally shifting realities but didn’t connect the dots. I stressed the World Energy Trilemma is essential and evolving. Energy security AND Equity (access and affordability) AND Sustainability are connected not competing priorities; and all three are tilting towards new demands for resilience and justice. Forget one, and the whole energy system becomes fragile.

1. The questions that keep me awake at night

Beneath the headlines and handshakes, three questions stayed with me:

·       How do we power AI and electrification revolutions without overwhelming already stretched grids, exacerbating water stress, or growing a mountain of energy technology scrap waste?

·       How can we talk about progress when less than 3% of climate finance reaches the people that need it most?

·       Are we designing systems for real people in real places – or are we addicted to speed?

2. Trust is the invisible infrastructure

Technologies can connect systems. Only trust connects people. Without trust - between governments and citizens, investors and communities, between regions and generations – it’s not possible to appreciate or change the underlying energy systems on which we all depend. Trust takes time. We’re short of that too. But the reality will be different paces in different places.

3. Who isn’t in the room?

These events gather extraordinary power – heads of state, ministers, financiers, CEOs. Yet many voices are still missing – women, next generations, and underserved populations - those living with energy poverty, water scarcity, rising heat, or simply without access to the rooms where energy futures and new power systems are being shaped.

4. Humanising Energy Alliances for MORE and BETTER energy

At the World Energy Council, we’re building communities - World Energy Women, Future Energy Leaders - and alliances - World Energy Trilemma, World Energy Compass - that widen the ‘we’ and strengthen the sense of belonging and trust.

5. Moving with the times - not in races

Despite my 35+ year commitment to addressing climate change and progressing sustainable development, I have never been a fan of the concept of the ‘race’ to the net zero, despite the promise than ‘we’ will all be winners.

Now the race is on to define a new global operating system and there seem to be little doubt that this creates many more losers, than winners.

Progress is an intergenerational relay - a pentathlon, rather than a sprint,  a ‘crowding in’, rather than a ‘trickling down’ which includes the role of more people and diverse communities as designers, builders, owners, users and leaders of energy systems. Systems that are secure AND equitable AND sustainable in a world that is warmer, more wired, and more heat, waste and water-stressed.

Realistic hope isn’t what we hold on to - it’s what we put into action.

Human progress is not an energy story of you vs me,  it the story of ‘we’ and what we can do together.

Mirages fade. Momentum becomes real progress only when it belongs to all of us.