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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 089On the supply side, many international oil companies are emphasising natural gas over crude and also increase their investments in renewable energy. On the upstream side, some new and challenging questions are asked: OPEC has been ruled for a long time by the ‘‘Hotelling logic’’, which holds that as the availability of a finite resource is reduced over time, its marginal value will go up. The discussion on unburnable carbon has the potential to undermine this logic. As a consequence, oil-rich countries who want to maximise the value of their resource are challenged to rethink the context in which they produce and the cartel logic is weakened. Instead, the incentive to produce as much as you can as quickly as you can (despite COP21) is becoming stronger.Utilities are torn between the new and the old. We need both, a system backbone to feed a growing number of cities and industrial activity and the capability to deliver the demand-side response and prosumer solutions. The latter in many cases are in direct competition with what has been built to be critical infrastructure. This defines two different businesses, with different types of investors, different customer profiles, different timeframes, and different priorities when it comes to policy frameworks, ultimately requiring very different skill sets. In order to perform well on both sides companies including E.ON and RWE in Europe have already decided to split up. Clearly, we will need both sides and will continue to depend on a system backbone for a long time.Energy efficiency is one area where reality is still falling short of expectations. Yes, we are making progress. Over the last 20 years, we have made energy intensity gains of 1.3 per cent per year on average. In the decade before 2000 it was 1.6 per cent, then in the first decade of the 2000s it was 1 per cent, in 2010-2012 it was back up to 1.7%. Still, this is far below the assumptions in our scenarios and in the Sustainable Energy for All objectives of 2.6 per cent. A much greater effort must be made and requires complex cross-constituent and cross-sectoral leadership, whether it’s in public transport, shipping, or housing.2015 was the start, but 2016 will be where the climate of innovation will need to gain traction. Japan, often seen as a leader in innovation and a country experiencing significant volatility in their energy security, is an ideal host for this year’s G7 meetings. China will be hosting the G20 meeting of energy ministers later this year, building on the initiative of the Turkish government in 2015. Turkey’s hosting in October 10 to 13 of the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul and the next Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in San Francisco before that will all be important moments when the commitments begin to truly embrace the new frontier for the sector.The world is now on a trajectory where only a climate of innovation will allow us to navigate the way to a truly sustainable energy future for the greatest benefit of all. ■ABOUT THE AUTHORDr Christoph Frei became the World Energy Council’s Secretary General in April 2009 and has guided the Council to provide global decision-makers with the necessary evidence base and the high-level dialogue platform to facilitate the development of energy policies to address the ‘‘energy trilemma’’ – the trade-offs between energy security, energy affordability, and environmental impact mitigation. He also has an assignment as Adjunct Professor and acts as Advisor to the President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Energy Security. Before joining the World Energy Council, Dr Frei was Senior Director, Energy Industries & Policy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and a member of WEF’s Right: Dr Christoph FreiExecutive Council.“ THE IMPACT OF EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS, CYBERSECURITYTHREATS AND THE ENERGY-WATER-FOOD NEXUS ON THE ENERGY SECTOR ARE POWERFUL DRIVERS TO ADAPT AND INNOVATE ”