The Paris Agreement supported by the IPCC report strongly suggests to limit global warming to 1.5°C. More and more countries announce their wish to achieve net-zero emissions in the coming decades. Nevertheless all the announced governmental measures summed up together will not ensure that global energy-related carbon emissions reach zero by 2050. Thus besides immediate deployment of all known and available clean energy technologies, more critical steps will be needed, i.e. cuts of investment in new fossil fuel supply projects and coal plants, phasing out of ICE engines for passenger cars, etc.

An ambitious goal to decarbonize electricity generation will open wide room for renewables (mainly solar and wind) and nuclear power but will bring massive curtailments for fossil fuels producers and suppliers. Oil production will shrink dramatically and remaining supply will be concentrated in the hands of a limited number of low-cost producers. The market of natural gas can be more successfully adapted to the new carbon neutral reality if natural gas is combined with CCS or transformed into blue hydrogen which will play vital role in industry and other segments unavailable to electricity. Major gas producers like Qatar and Russia can keep their strong role as reliable suppliers of energy if they engage — together with their customers — in decarbonizing the gas chain.

The transit to net-zero raises a lot of questions: energy efficiency, security, adequacy and reliability of supply and challenges caused by its political and social consequences. The place of big fossil fuels producers like Russia in the global quest to net-zero should be thoroughly discussed. The ENERGETIKA Conference offers itself as a place for an open dialogue upon such a topic.

The ENERGETIKA is a conference regularly held in St. Petersburg in the month of November to address recent developments in the energy sector on a global basis with special focus on Russia. It is organized by UNECON (St. Petersburg State University of Economics), combining an open academic atmosphere with the insights of representatives of important energy companies, like Gazprom, Equinor, Uniper, etc. as well as from national and international public organizations.

The conference is planned to be in person, however depending on the development of COVID measures contributions may also be online. Conference languages are English and Russian, simultaneous translation will be provided.

Participation is free, subject to registration and available places.

Previous ENERGETIKA conferences and workshops programs, presentations and photos are available at: https://energetika.unecon.ru/archive.html

To register, please, fill out the registration form on the website — https://energetika.unecon.ru/index-eng.html