That CoP28 was an event that catches many of the basic emotions we are going through for managing the Energy transition to rapidly move towards a safer, sustainable climate and balance with nature.

I was reflecting on the different parts and sought a way to describe these “emotions” as my reflection of the CoP28 event and all it means to me.

The Energy Transition: Navigating a Turbulent Sea

The energy transition is a complex and challenging journey, akin to navigating a turbulent sea. It’s a voyage fraught with both exhilarating opportunities and daunting obstacles, requiring us to steer clear of whirlpools of uncertainty and sail towards the horizon of sustainability.

The Whirlpool of Mixed Advice

As we continue to sail on this transformative journey, we’re bombarded with conflicting winds of information and often disinformation. Some advise a course towards renewable energy, while others suggest a reliance on traditional sources. This cacophony of guidance can leave us dizzy and unsure of our direction. We need consistent, well-thought-through advice with renewables as the core enabler to making the energy transition change.

The Storm of Closed-Up Industry

The energy industry, our vessel on this voyage, is often a closed-off ship, resistant to change and collaboration. This siloed approach hinders our progress, preventing us from pooling knowledge and forging stronger partnerships. This narrow, short-sighted approach of many is highly dangerous. We must embrace ecosystem thinking and design for different engagements that provide a more open-thinking and collaborative approach.

The Riptide of Evolving Standards

The rapid pace of innovation in the energy sector is like a series of riptides, constantly pushing us off course. Investments are far too often chasing the latest concept and often losing the needed vigour and assessment of validating the real, lasting value. We must navigate these currents by establishing global standards for renewable energy technologies and grid infrastructure, ensuring seamless integration and compatibility. We need to anchor our understanding and not let the chase for investment deflect us from determining clear business cases to gain lasting returns.

The Tempest of Information Overload

The energy transition is a data-rich ocean, but the volume of information can be overwhelming, drowning us in a sea of complexity. We must develop tools and strategies to filter and synthesize this knowledge, enabling us to make informed decisions amidst the chaos. We have got to filter this “overload” of insights, many provided by vested interests and give greater clarity and, most importantly, a clear context to the reader or future investor so they can “cut through” and find their own North Star to pursue.

The Typhoon of Vested Interests

The energy industry is often influenced by powerful interests favouring the status quo, hindering our ability to embrace revolutionary technologies. We must break free from these constraints and champion innovation that fuels the transition. A tide is constantly turning towards renewable investments, but this reluctance to change will constantly return and erode the resistance offered. We need to ride these tides and change the underlying currents.

The Undertow of Standard Offerings

The energy sector often provides one-size-fits-all solutions, failing to address the diverse needs of our stakeholders. We need to embrace flexibility and customization, tailoring solutions to the specific requirements of different communities. The Energy transition is a multiple endeavour that needs solutions that “fit” the circumstances of each party. To enable this, we need to recognize the history, the context, the ability to change and the resources to enable this. Recognizing differences gives diversity in solutions that deliver a certain uniqueness and often breakthroughs that we can learn from to shape the solutions that fit our circumstances.

The Fog of Engineering-Centric Mindset

The energy industry often operates from an engineer’s perspective, overlooking our decisions’ broader social and economic implications. We must broaden our horizons, considering our actions’ environmental, societal, and ethical ramifications. Scientists, market makers, development specialists, environmentalists, and those highly socially aware need to bring different perspectives to solutions that stimulate and stretch our “collective” thinking.

The Calm of Knowledge Sharing

The absence of centralized resources for knowledge sharing hinders our progress. We must create a common platform where insights and experiences are readily accessible, fostering collective learning and innovation. The need for building a shared global knowledge exchange that collates and consolidates choices and options will only accelerate the “diffusion of knowledge”. We must work towards this Energy knowledge repository consistently and with real purpose.

The Safe Harbor of Government Partnership

Governments do need to step up and act as lighthouses guiding our journey, ready to play a crucial role in shaping the energy transition but not biased or influenced by the strengths of lobbyists determined to “bend and influence” for narrow purposes. Governments and global institutions must strive harder to provide policy frameworks, funding support, and regulatory clarity, ensuring a smooth and equitable transition. We need to see the current CoP process differently from where it seems to be heading, caught in intense lobbying, not scientific fact-based thinking, where deliberations are taken far more objectively, not grabbed or pushed by the power of a few.

Embracing the Energy Transition: A Collective Effort

The energy transition is not a solo endeavour; it demands a collective effort akin to a flotilla of ships working together. We need to foster collaboration among industry players, academia, governments, and civil society, harnessing the strengths of each sector to navigate this transformative journey. Collaborations need to be placed on greater communicating platforms that are not just scientific or politically lead but broken down even further into the communities of similar need that become their “CoP” event determining outcomes NOT going in positions.

The Energy Transition: A Beacon of Hope or a Point of Despair?

Despite the challenges, the energy transition does need to be a beacon of hope, illuminating a path towards a cleaner, more sustainable future; we need to believe in that.

We can navigate this turbulent sea by harnessing our collective wisdom, innovation, and determination, reaching a destination where energy security and environmental stewardship are harmoniously intertwined. Is it to little too late?

It is hard to separate reality from aspirations, but we do have to try even harder than ever; the present CoP process needs changing and updating as the “public spectacle.”

For me, as a distant observer, the CoP28 event in Dubai diminishes our trust and beliefs and leaves a collectively exhausted group of people who attended and fought for their positions, finding each year harder and harder. It should not be; we do need this beacon of hope to burn brighter in the future and bring humanity into a real balance with nature and the environment.

As I reflect, I return to one opening speech at CoP28: We need to be balanced with Nature.

As King Charles stated “I have tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore Nature’s unique economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled.” He went on to say “We are carrying out a vast, frightening experiment of changing every ecological condition, all at once, at a pace that far outstrips Nature’s ability to cope. As we work towards a zero-carbon future, we must work equally towards being Nature-positive.”

King Charles most important point for me was “We need to remember that the indigenous world view teaches us that we are all connected. Not only as human beings, but with all living things and all that sustains life. As part of this grand and sacred system, harmony with Nature must be maintained. The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth”

The Energy Transition needs us to see sustainability in the “grander” sense, and that is our distant horizon we need to keep focused upon; we must put aside our established positions and seek out new ones that have the “greater good” for the future generations of all creatures as central, not just the fear of losing what we have gained, as it will not simply matter, if our earth breaks down, choking in unforgiving polluting air, unable to sustain life and moving from one disaster to another. We are at a real tipping point, and CoP is simply a yearly Cop-out and that cannot be sustained much longer.

*to gain ideas on themes, I used Bard to help with this