The big question in the energy sector today is whether the world will move to a zero-carbon policy in which fossil fuels, including natural gas, have no place, or a world in which natural gas is part of the solution, says Robert Johnston, CEO OF THE PRESTIGIOUS us-based research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, in an interview with World Energy Focus. Johnston advises oil and gas companies to “take a seat at the policy table and advocate for gas” to counter “growing demands to exclude natural gas”.

The key message of the COP21 Paris climate agreement is that business should be part of the drive towards renewable energy and part of the “innovation frontier”, says Christoph Frei, Secretary- General of the World Energy Council in an interview with World Energy Focus. “The long road from Paris is to build on the best technology, to develop and deploy innovation. If you are not on the forefront of this, you may not be around in the foreseenable future”. Frei (47), whohas beenthe Council’s leader since 2009, spells out what “Paris” means for the utility sector, oil and gas companies, coal companies and investors. He notes the world is going through a triple transition: a decarbonisation transition, a market design transition and a resilience transition. To navigate these transitions, “you have to be very clear on where your priorities are.”

Africa’s energy potential is the most underestimated in the world, says Bonang Mohale, the World Energy Council’s Vice-Chair for Africa. But Africa’s future energy system will not look like the one that currently exists in the West, add two energy leaders who are part of the Council’s extensive African network: “Africa will leapfrog the industrial nations. It will move straight to the low-carbon energy system of the future” say researcher Tana Selim Ustun and entrepreneur Samir Ibrahim. “And this will create untold new opportunities.” World Energy Focus looks at what the world can learn from Africa.

The new chairman of the IPCC, Dr Hoesung Lee, intends to interact more with the energy industry. “We are prepared to broaden our scope of collaboration”, he says, in an exclusive interview with World Energy Focus. Lee, a professor in the economics of climate change, energy and sustainable development at Korea University in Seoul, says “industry, the energy sector in particular, needs to be part of the solution to climate change”. He sees “enourmous value” in the “large-scale” deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Clean coal technologies should get the same kind of government incentives to reduce CO2 emissions as other energy sources, such as nuclear power and renewables, are getting, say proponents of coal energy. They warn that if policymakers continue to see coal only as an enemy to be combated, rather than an ally to be supported, the world will fail in its attempt to limit global warming to acceptable levels.

The Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, hailed as the “single most important step” the US has taken on stemming global climate change, has been regarded as good news for nuclear power and bad news for coal. But this does not mean nuclear has a bright future in the US or that coal is doomed.

Turkey, faced with strong demand growth and high important dependency, is undertaking ambitious projects in nuclear power, coal power and renewables. In an exclusive interview with World Energy Focus, Tanar Yildiz Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, says the government is shaping the energy strategy, but the private sector will have to make the investments. ” Having put in place a trasparent, competitive market structure, I am confident we are able to ensure security of supply trough the market. “

The chemical make-up of methane – four atoms of hydrogen to one of carbon – makes gas the least polluting of fossil fuels, in both its climate impact and its contribution to local pollution in cities. So in an increasingly carbon – constrained world, expected to be still heavily dependent on fossil fuels by 2050, gas has a crucial role to play in mitigating greenhouse emissions and meeting projected energy demand growth. Yet last month in Paris at the industry’s largest regular gathering – the triennal World Gas Conference – the clear mesage was that the role of natural gas in the future energy mix can no longer be taken for granted. The industry urgently needs to step up its advocacy efforts to convince policymakers of the benefits of gas, reduce the climate impact of its value chain, and cut costs to make gas more competitive with other energy sources, especially coal.

With the Paris COP 21 climate change talks now just six months away, the world’s energy community has called on negotiators to do all they can to commit to a policy framework conducive to the massive investments – estimated at US$53 trillion needed for the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. Tha is one of two key messages in the World Energy Council’s 2015 World Energy Trilemma Report, launched at the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting held in the Mexican city of Merida in the final week of May. The other is that policymakers need to grasp just how quickly the energy landscape is changing to ensure that policies and measures take account of realities. Only then can the step change needed in energy investment be realised.

Amidst all the excitement about the growth of wind and solar power, it is easy to forget that by far the largest source of renewable energy is hydroelectricity. In 2013, hydropower capacity grew by 40 GW , more than wind or solar. Global capacity is expected to double to 2,000 GW by 2050. But there will be challenges aplenty – not least ensuring that hydropower is developed responsibly and sustainably. Ahead of the World Hydropower Congress (WHC) in Beijing later this month – where the World Energy Council will be publicly releasing its latest hydropower report as part of its World Energy Resources series – we look at the status of and prospects for this flexible baseload technology in a world of carbon constrains and intermittent renewables.

With the fossil fuels expected to provide the bulk of the world’s primary energy needs for the forseenable future – despate the rapid rise of renewables – carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by many as an essential technology if we are to keep global warming within the 2°C limit that scientists recommend. However, though there are sign of progress, the widespread adoption of CCS still appears to be decades away. With the industry facing a critical period in its development, World Energy Focus looks at progress to date and the future progress for CCS.

No Nation on earth faces a bigger challange in providing affordable, secure and clean energy to all its people – the conflicting imperatives that make up what the World Energy Council calls the “energy trilemma” – than India. At the recent India Energy Congress in New Delhi, hopes were running high that prime minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an overwhelming victory in last May’s selection , will be able fix an energy sector that struggles to meet people’s needs because of unfinished reforms and financial constraints. It is a monumental task – but the rewards of success would be immense.

Shinzo Abe’s decision to call a snap election in December paid off with a decisive victory – renewing the mandate of the ruling coalition. High on the list of policy priorities will be energy, given its crucial role in the economy. Japan will benefit from low oil prices as they reduce the burdens of heavy dependence on fossil fuel imports. However – as there is no knowing how long the low oil price will last – Abe’s government will be focusing on two energy issues with big economic impacts: re-starting still-dormant nuclear power stations, and scaling back renewables subsidies.

As the new year began, the price of crude oil continued to slide, with the Brent benchmark dipping below $ 50/barrel in the first few days of January – more than 50% down from the peak of $115/b reached in June 2014. Whatever happens next, many commentators regard this shock as the most significant energy and political development of 2014 and a key determinant of what will happen economically and politically in 2015.

The ability of countries to meet the future energy needs of their people could be jeopardised unless policymakers take urgent action to facilitate energy investment. So says the latest World Energy Trilemma report from the World Energy Council. Meanwhile, the WEC’s annual ranking of how well 129 countries are handling the three dimensions of the energy trilemma – reliability, affordability and sustainability – finds the number scoring an AAA rating has fallen from five to three, with four countries on negative watch.

Despite the various initiatives already under way to give the people of sub-Saharan Africa access to modern energy sources, much more could and should be done “to release the energy brake” on the region’s social and economic development. So says a comprehensive study just published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that focuses on what Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven describes as “the epicentre of a major energy poverty crisis”. Increasing access to modern energy would enable “a major push towards a more self-sustaining model of economic growth” – with “the benefits outweighing the costs”.

Last month’s one – day United Nations climate summit in New York may not have met everyone’s expectations but it certainly went a long way towards building awareness of climate change and pushing the issue up the political agenda – precisely what it was meant to achieve. We have yet to see whether world leaders can achieve what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen 2009: a meaningful international climate treaty at COP 21 talks in Paris at the end of next year. But Ban Ki -moon’s summit and the thousands of demonstrations around the world that preceded it sent a clear message – the world is watching … and waiting.

China remains overwhelmingly dependent on coal for its energy supply, but the nation’s fuel mix is changing. Natural gas consumption is expected to grow to around 420 Bcm/year by 2020; renewable energy is growing at a “spectacular”rate; numerous nuclera reactors are under construction and planned; and even transport , traditionally the province of oil, is moving to lower-carbon sources, such as electricity, LNG, compressed natural gas and LPG. It will take time to make a big dent on consumption of oil and coal, but the trends are unmistakeable.

Russian natural gas company Gazprom will this month begin construction work in earnest on Power of Siberia – a 4,000 kilometre pipeline that will form the backbone of its massive Eastern Gas Programme – with the making of the first weld.
At an estimated cost of US Dollar 55 billion, the investment programme will create an integrated gas production and transmission system aimed at supplying gas to eastern Russia, developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Vladivostok, and – crucially – exporting gas to China.

In a world where one in five people has no access to electricity and two in five are without clean cooking facilities, the importance of the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative cannot be over-stated. Proposed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011, its 2030 objectives are to enable universal access to modern energy services, to double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and to double the share of renewable in the energy mix. Last month the initiative held its first global forum in New York. In this exclusive interview, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella tells of its progress to date and the challenge of scaling up efforts so that the ambitious targets are met.