Kicking off day two of Gastech Exhibition & Conference 2023, global energy leaders discussed ways for securing and deploying the multi trillion-dollar investments needed to achieve net zero goals!

In a panel, entitled ‘Securing and Strategically Deploying the Multi Trillion-Dollar Investments Needed to Achieve Net Zero Goals,’ Don Dimitrievich, Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Energy Infrastructure Credit, Nuveen, a TIAA company, said: “The IRA has been incentivizing significant capital investment, but it has also created some inflationary symptoms. There is clearly a positive objective and outcome associated with the IRA. As a catalyst it is working, but there is a lot of room for improvement.”

Meanwhile, Kelvin Wong, Deputy Head of Energy Renewables and Infrastructure, Institutional Banking Group at DBS Bank, stated: “We are committed to net zero, but we all know that the next 27 years are going to fraught with a non-linear progression. When renewable energy penetration hits a certain percentage, grids become increasingly unstable. This is a cost that is not discussed, and it is necessary to make decarbonization a real strategy.”

Saugata Saha, President of S&P Global Commodity Insights, said: “We use the phrase energy transition, but it is really an energy trilemma, as we need to solve three things simultaneously: energy security, sustainability, and stability/affordability.”

Additionally, Octávio Simões, CEO of Tellurian Inc, noted: “Energy needs to be sustainable, affordable and accessible. If not, countries around the world are going to burn more wood and more coal. Telling Africa to wait 20-30 years while we identify the best solution, while at the same draining every existing natural gas resource that they have, is energy colonialism.”

The panel further viewed climate challenges as a global issue. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, NNPC Limited, said: “The reality of the climate issue is that it is a global issue, not a regional one. In Africa, the solutions are different from what we will have elsewhere, stemming from the level of energy poverty that inundates Sub-Saharan Africa. We need to look at how we can bring the entire continent out of energy poverty.”