EXPERTS DISCUSSED ENERGY PRICE CRISIS
On November 4, 2022, the 5th Vienna Energy Security Dialogue took place. Organized by the World Energy Council Austria, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ernst & Young and the Federation of Austrian Industries, the dialogue was dedicated to the topic of ‘Coping with Tensions’. The energy world, especially in Europe, is being shaken by multiple crises. The war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic and the looming recession are testing Europe’s energy systems and economy. The security of energy supply is once again a priority and the political actions in the near future will decide whether Europe emerges from the crisis stronger and more sustainable or not.
In order to shed light on the crises and possible courses of action, three panels were organized on the topics “The Future of Oil and Gas”, “The Green Energy Revolution” and “Humanising the Energy Transition”. Mag. Dr. Michael Strugl (President, World Energy Council Austria) and Ambassador Igli Hassani (Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities) held the welcoming remarks and the keynote speakers Dr. Angela Wilkinson (Secretary General & CEO, World Energy Council), Georg Knill (President, Federation of Industry) and Dr. Ayed S. Al-Qahtani (Director Research Division, OPEC) set the foundation for the discussions.
In the first panel on the future of oil & gas – moderated by Prof. Stefan Ulreich (Professor of Energy Economics, Biberach University) – Dr. Yousef Alshammari (CEO, CMarkits), Prof. Karl Rose (Member Supervisory Board, OMV AG & ESTAG), Mag. Judith Neyer (Head of Strategic Energy Policy, BMK), Mike Fulwood (Senior Scientist, The Oxford Institute of Energy Studies) and Ádám Balogh (Head of the Ukraine Task Force, Energy Community) discussed future energy price scenarios, the role of oil and gas in the transformation to sustainable energy sources, and the impact of geopolitical crises on security of supply.
The second panel discussed opportunities and challenges of green technologies, their geopolitical dependencies and effects on security of supply. The panel consisted of DI Dr. Edith Haslinger (Senior Scientist, AIT), Sigurdur Atli Jonsson (CEO, Arctic Green Energy), Dr. Rauan Meirbekova (Senior Research Scientist, ICETEC), Andrei Covatariu (Co-Chair of the Task Force on Digitization in Energy, UNECE) and DI Theresia Vogel (Managing Director, Climate and Energy Fund) and it was moderated by Mag. Daniel Kroos (Program Manager Energy Security, OSCE).
The third panel, titled “Humanising the Energy Transition”, was dedicated to the role of diversity, inclusion and energy communities in the transformation to climate neutrality. Moderated by Ivo Wakounig (Senior Advisor, World Energy Council Austria), Mag. Stephan Sharma (CEO, Burgenland Energie AG), Dr. Irene Giner-Reichl (Co-Founder, Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition and President, Global Forum on Sustainable Energy), Dr. Catherina Cader (Head of Research Department Off-Grid Systems, Reiner Lemoine Institute), Stavroula Pappa (Project Manager, REScoop.eu) and Ana Belén Padilla Moreno (General Secretary, World Energy Council Spain).
Dr. Robert Kobau (Secretary General, World Energy Council Austria) held the concluding remarks of the event. We would like to thank Ivo Wakounig, Prof. Dr. Stephan Unger and Mag. Daniel Kroos for the conception and organization of the event. We would like to thank our TOP speakers for the exciting and interesting explanations. We would also like to thank the OSCE, the Federation of Industry and Ernst & Young for their support as co-organisers.
