IKED engagement on energy issues
Reflecting their ubiquitous nature, energy issues have come up in various strands of IKED activity since its earliest years. Examples include innovation reviews of several countries, including Norway, the UAE, Oman, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Sustainability aspects have featured strongly along the way. In recent years, however, the intrinsic relationship between energy systems and sustainability issues has attained increased urgency. The contribution of IKED, meanwhile, has narrowed in on identifying and disclosing the untapped opportunities, notably associated with innovation and what measures can be taken to speed the transition process towards more sustainable and effective energy systems.
Despite the many strong political statements and great promises of investment in renewables and enhanced energy efficiency, various hurdles keep hampering progress. Among them, distortive state subsidies continue to prop up fossil fuel consumption and conventional solutions in many countries, dwarfing the means invested in innovation and support of renewables. Large-scale capital intensive projects attract more attention than regulatory adjustment and smart solutions that oftentimes are critical for assuring a changed course on the ground. Failure to put in place simple national policy frameworks facilitating and clarifying conditions for certifying carbon credits in compliance with the Paris Agreement, in effect provides blockage against a wide range of investment opportunities in sound carbon-emission reducing activities in developing and emerging economies. With partner organisations, IKED engages in a range of efforts to disclose, dismantle and overcome such hurdles.
Extending from deliberations at the Global Forum in Oman, October 2022, and COP28 in Dubai, December 2023, IKED currently engages with partners in a ambitious strand of work, aimed at realising the operationalisation of radical improvements to energy storage coupled with smart sensors technology that draw on AI-powered material science. These solutions, currently in a stage of piloting and testing, promise an overhaul of wasteful practices, reduced dependency on rare earths, drastic cuts to carbon emissions, and more environmentally friendly energy systems overall.
As for ongoing related research, IKED leads the strand of work in the EU-funded GoNaturePositive! project that aims to identify and advance drivers for transformational change, including in the technology domain.
At the WEF, January 18, 2024, IKED collaborated with Schmidt Futures, the Global Forum, and other partners in arranging the breakout session on "Achieving Planetary Health and Energy Security: the Contribution of AI and Digitization".