Tech & Talent: drivers in accelerating energy transition

Accelerating the energy transition is a critical step to answering the climate emergency we are experiencing. In this urgent path to a dynamic, sustainable, and efficient energy system of supply and demand there are many solutions that can be mobilised in different sectors and markets. But how do we effectively scale up this movement? Talent and technology, in an era of digitalisation and artificial intelligence, are indispensable drivers for a sustainable future.

On this note, United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accentuates, in a report published in 2022, the great potential of artificial intelligence and digital technologies such as sensors, robotics, and the Internet of Things to help mitigate climate change, simultaneously creating economic opportunities. Digitalisation increasingly enables the adjustment of supply to the real demand, from sensors and predictive models, reinforcing energy efficiency and consumption reduction. And by using predictive models, this more efficient management can be made on the scale of a building, a transportation system, and even the entire network.

The benefits of digitalisation are surely encouraging. Nevertheless, leading the energy transition also means being alert to the inherent risks (also pointed out by IPCC) and creating strategies with their mitigation in view. Questions concerning inequalities in digital access in developing countries or a bigger energy demand in more digitally advanced countries must be considered in a transition that aims to be – necessarily – global.

The human side of energy transition

Digitalisation does not mean dispensing the element of human involvement: in parallel with technological evolution, energy transition demands a talent evolution capable of generating maximum value in the green economy.

The foundations of this new talent generation start being planted today, preparing young professionals via formative programs to think of the future (that integrate, for instance, digital technologies) and capacitating professionals already in the work market. Hence, it is relevant, for example, to adjust those jobs that are linked to fossil to clean energy. Studies show positive impacts in what concerns job generation in a green economy: a million dollars in sustainable investment creates, in general, more jobs than the same amount in unsustainable investment.

It is necessary to create, massify and make this formative offer attractive in the eyes of innumerable generations of professionals, but also to raise the companies’ awareness of the importance of talent capacitation in a green economy in many markets. In doing so, tomorrow we will have a prepared workforce, on a global scale, to face the emerging energy challenges.

Reframing the debate toward the future

How do we create successful conditions to invest in the next talent generation and to potentiate the role of digitalisation in the future of energy? These are some of the topics that will centre the debate at the Lisbon Energy Summit, Europe’s leading annual meeting of leaders in the energy sector.

Eminent personalities will be attending this year’s edition of Lisbon Energy Summit, from 30 May to 1 June, such as the Minister of the Environment and Climate Action of Portugal, Duarte Cordeiro; the Minister of Infrastructure of Portugal, João Galamba; Galp’s CEO, Filipe Crisóstomo Silva, and EDP’s CEO, Miguel Stillwell d’Andrade.

Be a part of the high-level debate about the challenges that the sector is facing and contribute to the redefinition of the energy transition. Lisbon Energy Summit awaits you.

Book your place in the discussions and secure your delegate pass HERE.