WEBVTT 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:02.080 Thank you all so much for being here. 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:03.680 Jason, starting with you, 00:00:03.880 --> 00:00:06.400 in a world with a lot of conflicting ideas, 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.120 where do you make sense of where we are 00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:09.520 on the energy transition? 00:00:09.920 --> 00:00:13.680 I think in a place like Climate Week, it's sometimes hard for people to kind of 00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:16.600 appreciate that two things can both be true at the same time. 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:20.520 We've made staggering progress, thanks to companies like Sumant's, 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:25.280 in the cost declines we've seen in clean energy, the pace of deployment of clean energy. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.600 We saw global spending on clean energy twice what it was on fossil fuels last year. 00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:34.280 And despite all of that progress, oil use is going up and gas use is going up, 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.240 and even coal use has been going up, and emissions are going up. 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:40.560 So the scale of the energy system is just so massive, 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.200 particularly to meet global demand growth. 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:47.120 Particularly emerging and developing economies see higher rates of economic growth and 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:50.440 use more energy, which gives them prosperity and makes their lives better. 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:56.680 We need to move much faster to deploy clean energy at the scale and speed that 00:00:56.680 --> 00:00:58.680 would not only meet the growth in global demand, 00:00:58.680 --> 00:01:03.880 but would start to displace the amount of energy that comes from fossil fuels today 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:05.360 to bring emissions down much faster. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:08.960 And Maurice, where do you see the major trends 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:11.200 emerging on the energy transition? 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:17.080 So I think we've seen in the past 24 to 36 months a lot changing geopolitically 00:01:17.080 --> 00:01:21.440 and for each company's calculations of where and how they should be investing. 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:24.240 We've seen fragmenting global supply chains. 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:28.640 We've seen more of a focus on energy security and challenges on affordability. 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:33.720 We've seen energy demand on the electricity side enter a super cycle, 00:01:33.720 --> 00:01:35.520 particularly through data centers and AI. 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:38.840 And all of that pushed us to a bit of a new reality. 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:42.760 And so there's a few things we're saying that companies need to think about. 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:46.720 First of all, where they invest, really doubling down on technologies that 00:01:46.720 --> 00:01:50.400 are in the money already, and that can cover probably 65% of emissions. 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:52.200 Two is what we build. 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.680 Doing it faster, getting permitting and planning cycles 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:57.960 down and getting more out of our existing grids. 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:01.200 We see the potential to get 35 to 45 percent more 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.640 without laying more steel and more cable. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:05.880 And finally, thinking about the public and really 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:08.760 making it worth their while because they have an important role to play. 00:02:09.040 --> 00:02:12.040 They can change behaviors, they can talk about when and how they consume, 00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:14.080 but we got to make it worth their while. 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.640 So that's really what we're focusing on, and I think that's what we need to see happening more. 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:21.400 And Sumant, this question is for you. Looking at high-growth markets, 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:23.080 where do you see the most opportunities? 00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:26.280 Well, you know, what's happening in markets like India 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:28.600 and other high-growth markets in the Global South, 00:02:28.600 --> 00:02:31.160 where energy demand is going at 5 or 6 percent a year, 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.840 the question for us really is how do we build the energy system of the future. 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:37.640 And there are two really stark choices available to us. 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:41.680 One is to go with legacy systems, and the other is to really double down on 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.320 the clean energy transition and build more and more renewable energy capacity 00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:47.280 and use that really to meet our demand growth. 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:50.520 And that's the direction I think that most of the world is now traveling in. 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:53.680 So you see solar prices have come down, wind prices have come down, 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.320 battery prices have come down, and that is making all sorts of new 00:02:57.320 --> 00:03:00.320 electricity and energy much, much cheaper than it used to be. 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:04.120 Now the next thing we need to do is we need to take the revolution that is 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:06.920 happening on the electricity side into the rest of the energy sector, 00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:10.640 into the hard-to-abate industries like transportation, steel, cement, 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:11.680 those kinds of things. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:14.360 And those solutions are also now becoming available. 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:18.320 And as those become available, you can start seeing this energy transition 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:22.760 have much deeper and longer legs out for the next two or three decades, if anything. 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.640 And so I'm actually very optimistic about the clean energy transition, 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:31.000 especially in countries that still have to build most of their energy infrastructure. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:36.840 I guess three quick points. 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:42.320 One is policy uncertainty and the lack of policy durability. 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:46.040 That's becoming an increasing problem not only in the United States but elsewhere. 00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:48.120 That's a hard environment in which to invest. 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:55.040 The second is a trend in the US on both sides of the aisle and in other countries as well, 00:13:55.040 --> 00:13:59.400 to a more active intervention of the state 00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:02.440 in private enterprise when it comes to the energy sector in the name of 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:04.880 economic security, in the name of national security. 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:09.160 We're seeing governments intervene in markets with equity investments, 00:14:09.160 --> 00:14:11.760 with restrictions on trade and supply chains. 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:14.600 And that's going to be a really important consideration for businesses. 00:14:14.640 --> 00:14:19.360 And against that backdrop is this kind of new era of concern about energy security, 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.520 geopolitical competition, rivalry between great powers, 00:14:22.520 --> 00:14:27.280 economic fragmentation after several decades of more globalization and cooperation. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.440 And that's an entirely different landscape for businesses to think about 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:32.840 their global supply chains and investments around the world. 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:36.640 I think corporate leaders have to do three things as well. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.400 Number one is they have to educate themselves because the energy system is 00:14:40.400 --> 00:14:42.000 moving at lightning pace right now. 00:14:43.040 --> 00:14:45.360 There are lots of new things that are coming up, 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:50.480 lots of relative changes in different generating sources and so on. 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:54.080 And so I think the first thing is, business leaders really need to step up 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.200 and understand what's really happening around them. 00:14:56.560 --> 00:14:59.040 The second thing is, they need to understand the national context 00:14:59.040 --> 00:15:02.400 because as I said earlier, some countries have fossil fuels, 00:15:02.400 --> 00:15:03.440 some don't. 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:06.800 In some countries solar is cheap, and some countries wind is cheaper. 00:15:06.920 --> 00:15:10.760 Some countries have a national grid that can be expanded easily, some don't. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.600 So I think the solutions that are available in every country is different 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:15.320 from one to the other. 00:15:15.920 --> 00:15:19.440 The third thing I think corporate leaders need to do is to step up and take leadership. 00:15:19.920 --> 00:15:23.440 We haven't talked about climate, but climate is a very pressing matter around us. 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:26.960 It was, in fact, the genesis of the clean energy transition. 00:15:27.160 --> 00:15:29.480 Now, of course, the energy transition is moving forward 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:32.800 because of affordability and security reasons as well, 00:15:32.800 --> 00:15:36.960 but that's still a pressing requirement for the world as a whole. 00:15:37.240 --> 00:15:41.080 And I think the corporates around the world emit almost two-thirds of all carbon emissions. 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.080 And so I think corporate leaders really need to step up and really start looking 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:47.200 at all their carbon emissions and see what they can do about it. 00:15:47.560 --> 00:15:48.840 Thank you all so much for being here. 00:15:49.160 --> 00:15:49.520 Thank you. 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:50.360 Thanks for having us.