The energy sector is at the center of the duality of rising energy demands and the urgent need to reduce emissions in the midst of a growing global population and a worsening climate crisis. All eyes will be on the energy sector and its capacity to simultaneously address these two issues as preparations for the Conference of the Parties summit COP28 this year begin.
It is estimated that energy now contributes more than two thirds of all global emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the losses and damages caused by global warming-related events like flooding, extreme heat, and drought in its most recent report.
It also makes it clear that taking steps to decarbonize now could bring about the fundamental change needed for a world that is both sustainable and equitable.
The energy industry must use the right technologies to make its operations as efficient as possible and ensure that the efficiency gains can be accurately measured and reported in order to help realize that vision. It must also develop new commercially viable energy sources that are better for the environment while simultaneously delivering the energy that the world requires today.
This can only be done with a lot of help from the government through the right mix of policies, incentives, and investments to make sure that the new and emerging technologies that are responsible for bringing about this transformation can thrive.
Until recently, the energy industry’s benefits from Industry 4.0 were mostly discussed in terms of digitalization’s cost reduction and yield optimization.
However, sustainability and digitalization also work well together. Associated, digitalized tasks address a ‘prepared now’ arrangement that can expose stowed away productivity wins, set aggressive yet reachable energy reserve funds targets and report on execution.
As a result, the energy industry, which has always relied heavily on manual, analog processes, must now accelerate its digitalization journey using a strategy that prioritizes not only productivity and cost reduction but also energy and emissions management.
The energy landscape of today reflects a rising demand for energy that has been accelerated by the perfect storm of post-pandemic recovery, the rapid industrialization of developing nations, an expanding population, and an energy scramble brought on by ongoing political unrest around the world.
There is an urgent need to meet these demands in new, more effective ways, as well as increased demands on the energy sector to supply the world’s energy needs.
The public and private sectors must collaborate to implement the right infrastructure to support a more environmentally friendly mix, including the deployment of grid management and energy storage technologies that are able to support the peaks and troughs of renewable-derived power, in addition to steadily increasing the percentage of renewable and transitional energy sources.
Energy companies can produce alternative products like Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by converting their existing units and utilizing new refining solutions. They can also make use of carbon capture technologies, which, in the case of energy derived from fossil fuels, can also produce blue hydrogen as a byproduct—a crucial step toward an economy based on green hydrogen. Additionally, newer refrigeration methods with extremely low potentials for global warming have a significant impact on carbon reduction.
There are already a lot of options, and everyone needs to work together to make sure they can be quickly brought to market at a scale and in a way that makes sense financially. As a result, it is absolutely necessary for conferences on climate change hosted by the United Nations to continue providing the ideal conditions for the negotiation of deals that have the potential to accelerate the widespread adoption of new energy technologies.
The Middle East, a region that has a long history of leading the way in finding solutions to the world’s energy needs, will host the United Nations summit for the second year in a row.
Along with established international technology partners who possess the market understanding necessary to effectively operate in accordance with the regional national visions, Middle Eastern energy companies have the domain knowledge and resources necessary to scale up the deployment of new technologies. They also have the strong support of a government that has made it clear that it wants to make sure these new technologies are used to their full potential.
There is no one solution that will guarantee our energy supply in the future. Energy organizations will keep on gathering the politically influential nation’s necessities, yet the instruments for how they do it are advancing emphatically. The Middle East’s energy companies have the perfect opportunity to demonstrate their leadership in this evolution through global platforms like this year’s COP28, working with the sector’s other private and public stakeholders to ensure it occurs as quickly, sustainably, and equitably as possible.
