Forbes Piece: Daniel Yergin Talks CERAWeek, Energy Security And The Energy Transition
[Note: This piece can be read in full at Forbes.com]
S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin listens during CERAWeek, an international energy conference, in Houston, Texas, on March 6, 2023. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)
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When I sat down for the third in a continuing series of interviews with S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin (author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations”) recently, I wanted to see if he would preview the agenda for the annual CERAWeek conference, which runs in Houston from March 6 through 10.
Global Events Drive The Agenda
“It’s been a very dramatic year for the energy industry, so much has changed - everything from the war in Ukraine to the IRA Act in the United States,” Yergin says. “And of course, we've seen some political changes in the United States as well. So, I think the basic theme is trying to capture how companies and others navigate in a much more turbulent and confusing energy picture and setting within the political and geopolitical as well as economic context.”
The CERAWeek conference annually attracts thousands of registrants from across the globe, serving as one of the most important educational and networking events held in the United States each year. This year, Yergin says the delegate attendance is 7,500, along with a number of additional registrants, providing a significant economic impact to the local Houston economy. It’s a welcome return to something close to full strength after the event had to be cancelled in 2020, held digitally in 2021 and saw attendance still somewhat impacted by the COVID pandemic even last year.
The past year in the energy space has without doubt been one of most turbulent ever seen in the global energy space. The Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted and largely reset global trade, geopolitics, national politics and all other aspects of the energy equation, and it will take years for things to begin settling back into some semblance of normality.
Yergin indicated the events of the past year drive the CERAWeek Executive Conference agenda. “Something that happened over the last year is the return of energy security, which had partly fallen off the table in the United States thanks to the success of the shale revolution,” he said. “If you remember, seven or eight US presidents talked about becoming energy independent, and it often seemed like, oh, well, that's just a campaign slogan, but it will never happen.
“But then, lo and behold, over a decade or so, the US became energy independent. And that had a big economic impact. It's also had a big political impact. And it also meant that people sort of forgot about security. But that sure is back on the table today.”
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