Session Description

To strengthen response to the global climate crisis, countries around the world have been setting a more specific and reinforced goal of Net-Zero CO2 emission in the long term, along with the establishment of a clean energy system to respond to climate change. This ambitious and new goal requires the conversion from using fossil fuel into a new energy system which entails the overall changes in energy mechanisms including supply and demand. Such energy system conversion will require significant investment such as technology development and new facilities, as well as institutional improvement and market changes to support it. In addition, conflicts between various values, including friction with existing systems, may occur during policy implementation. Therefore, for effective policy implementation, it is essential to establish an implementation strategy that can minimize social costs in consideration of each country's social and economic conditions. In terms of industries and enterprises, for the purpose of the Net-Zero conversion of production/consumption, they need to set up and implement transitional development strategies which focus on technology innovation and investment, and minimize risk factors by accurately predicting market changes. In the global aspect, due to the nature of energy activities of countries around the world being linked through energy movement, in order to achieve a successful global Net-Zero, it is necessary to prepare and promote global cooperation strategies from a multilateral standpoint as well as individual national policies. In promoting the Net-Zero policy, each country can achieve the energy sector change that each country aims for through interaction only when changes in the global energy sector as well as their own energy sector occur together. In this session, therefore, high-ranking policy makers from around the world will present Net-Zero implementing strategies of major economies including Korea in terms of challenges and overcoming methods expected in the implementation of the Net-Zero policy, and the role and participation of community members. On the industry and enterprise side, the CEO of a leading energy company will present development strategy for technology development and investment expansion for the implementation of Net-Zero, and for overcoming risk factors in the innovation process. Also, the representative of a global consulting firm will present the outlook for changes in the global energy market and investment following the implementation of Net-Zero. the Secretary-General of the International Energy Agency, IEA, will present how to cooperate for global energy conversion to achieve Net-Zero.

Questions

• 1. What is the future prospect of the global energy system following the global Net-Zero promotion and the basic direction of global energy cooperation that should be established in the implementation process?
• 2. What are each country’s vision, prospect and major strategies for the future energy system which pursues Net-Zero?
• 3. What challenges do you expect to have when implementing Net-Zero policies, and how will you overcome them?
• 4. What are industries and/or companies’ Net-Zero strategies for technology innovation and investment and what challenges do you expect to have when implementing those strategies? And how will you overcome them?
• 5. What changes do you expect in the global energy market and investment following the implementation of Net-Zero?

Session Composition

Session Description

Extreme weather events occur more often every corner of the world recently due to climate change, and the resulting damage is increasing. As more recognize the need and urgency of climate action, lots of countries start to announce the ambitious goal of achieving Net-Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. According to the implementing strategies of the countries with the Net-Zero goal and the Net-Zero scenario by the International Energy Agency, IEA, the energy system emitting a lot of GHGs as of now should be transformed from a fossil fuel-oriented and centralized system to renewable/low carbon energy-oriented, circular, and decentralized one. Community members should change their lifestyle into using less energy and emitting less GHGs. It has become essential for some traditional manufacturing businesses with the production process emitting lots of GHGs to develop low emission production processes. Ordinary people are also required to make changes in their lifestyle in a way of, for example, using green cars and investing in the improvement of building energy efficiency. When the methods of supplying and consuming energy, goods and services change, companies will face challenges and opportunities at the same time. Companies that used to practice carbon-intensive production activities should opt for new and clean production processes. And those manufacturing fossil fuel relevant products and services will have no choice but to minimize such business along with a Net-Zero goal and find a new business area. Meanwhile, new growth opportunities will be abundant in the fields of renewable energy including solar and wind, new energy carriers like hydrogen, hydrogen/electric vehicles, zero-energy buildings, etc. In this session, various businesses, such as those facing big challenges like the change of production processes, the expansion into new business areas, etc. and those with opportunities driven from the production and consumption system conversion for energy and goods, will talk about what challenges and opportunities they expect to face in the middle of the global trend of implementing Net-Zero policies, what crisis management and growth strategies they will prepare to respond to them and what hurdles they predict when implementing strategies. Last but not least, one country or one sector cannot achieve the goals of climate change mitigation and global Net-Zero but the efforts of every country and every sector are needed. As the global cooperation is inevitable to achieve global Net-Zero, we plan to share our thoughts on global cooperation strategies for global Net-Zero with various sectors intertwined each other through global value chains.

Questions

• 1. What effect will the 2050 Net-Zero strategy put on existing businesses and how to respond to them?
• 2. What should industrial sectors do to contribute to the 2050 Net-Zero strategy?
• 3. What would be a new growth engine when implementing the Net-Zero strategy, what do you plan to utilize that engine for real growth and what challenges do you expect to have?

Session Composition

Session Description

Countries start to use clean, renewable energy more like solar and wind to reduce greenhouse gas (GHS) emissions and go toward a carbon neutral society in the long term. Also, they have established and implemented ambitious goals and diverse policies to produce clean hydrogen by utilizing renewable resources. Countries have started to voluntarily set up a GHG emission reduction goal since 2016, and all the Parties of the Paris Agreement agreed to submit Long-term low greenhouse gas Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS) and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to meet the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels by 2020 and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. As a part of the response to climate change, global economic players including the European Union (EU), the UK, France, Canada, and Japan have declared carbon neutrality and adopted low-carbon policies and Korea as well, has prepared the ‘2050 Carbon Neutrality Implementing Strategy’, aggressively responding to the great transitional era of Net Zero.

In this session, we plan to discuss the achievement of the global energy transition and the role of hydrogen by diagnosing the present and future of global carbon neutrality policies, recognizing the importance of hydrogen to achieve Net Zero through the reduction of GHG emissions and reviewing various policy models of countries and their effects.

Also, it is planned to share policies, technologies and investment trends of each country for the promotion of hydrogen-related industries and come up with ideas which will address the challenges related to the expansion of clean hydrogen market including environmental issues, safety considerations, and ways to improve the public acceptance for the use of hydrogen, etc. Last but not least, effective value chain structure strategies will also be discussed to promote hydrogen economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and search for the direction of the energy transition where the international community needs to move forward in the future.

Questions

• 1. Global major players try to make the conversion into a hydrogen society from fossil fuel-oriented energy structure in order to meet the goal of Paris Agreement and achieve Net-Zero. How have the policies for hydrogen supply and its more use been evaluated and what are their achievements?
• 2. How have the international community and each country dealt with the challenges facing in the process of expanding hydrogen market such as safety, environmental and acceptance issues?
• 3. What would be effective value chain structure strategies aimed at promoting hydrogen-related industries when facing structural changes driven by COVID-19? And what effects will it have on achieving carbon neutrality?

Session Composition

Time		Program	Contents
[KST] 16:40-17:40 [CET] 08:40-09:40	60'	Presentation	Unlocking Australia’s hydrogen opportunity Fiona Simon CEO, Australian Hydrogen Council
			The role of Hydrogen on the road toward a climate neutral economy in Europe Jon André Løkke President, Hydrogen Europe
			Hydrogen developments in the UK Celia Greaves CEO & Founder, UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association
			Hydrogen as an Essential Player in Net Zero Energy Sector - A Canadian Perspective Jeff Grant Vice-Chair, Hydrogen BC
[KST] 17:40-18:00 [CET] 09:40-10:00	20'	Panel Discussion and Q&A	Moderator: Moon Jae-Do Chairman, H2KOREA
			Fiona Simon CEO, Australian Hydrogen Council Jon André Løkke President, Hydrogen Europe Celia Greaves CEO & Founder, UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association Jeff Grant Vice-Chair, Hydrogen BC

* The programs above are changeable depending on future situations.

Session Description

The drive towards race to zero is accelerating throughout the world with the global imperative to secure sustainability of energy system while ensuring climate neutrality. It is vital that the connections between people and planet are maintained in healthy and resilient way. Actions for securing healthy planet should be beneficial to all human being and driven at a grassroots level. However, in reality, a big disconnection still exists between policies developed to achieve Net-Zero and what those who will be affected by them think they can afford and be afforded.

In response, the World Energy Council’s Vision 2025 focuses on ‘Humanizing Energy’ driven by broad trends in digitalization, decarbonization, decentralization and demand disruption. This recognizes a more active and inclusive people-centric energy agenda to meet the global imperatives of securing more energy and climate neutrality, in a new context of affordability and social justice. In other words, it is about how to make the Net-Zero easier and beneficial to all while there is ongoing shift from supply centric to customer centric energy system. With this vision, the Council convene countries, companies, cities and vulnerable communities to identify ‘how to’ translate new visions into action.

As part of this initiative, the World Energy Council and the Korea Energy Foundation are delighted to bring you this special session aimed at exploring a diverse interpretation on what humanizing energy is really about in each countries of Asia Pacific Region. There is no single ‘race to zero’, there are in fact multiple pathways being progressed with tremendous geographical and technological diversity. In that sense, sharing successful stories of the diversity of soft skills, people, industry and technologies enabling the Net-Zero society leveraged by unique strength of each countries from the bottom-up view will provide meaningful insight into achieving “Humanizing Net-Zero”.

This session will serve as a platform to open meaningful dialogue to share vision and strategies for dealing with global imperatives to achieve Net Zero society at the regional level, specifically focused in Asia.

Questions

• 1. What would Humanizing Net-Zero mean to your country?
• 2. How fast or how slow do you think a country needs to be when pursuing Net-Zero, and what should we do to pursue a community-oriented Net-Zero?
• 3. What specific measures do you take to change the energy market or policies for the acceleration of Net-Zero?

Session Composition

Time		Role	Contents
[KST] 13:00-13:20 [CET] 05:00-05:20	10'	Keynote Speech	HUMANISING ENERGY - Closing the energy transition implementation gap Angela Wilkinson Secretary General & CEO, World Energy Council
	10'		Germany’s Innovation Strategy for the Energy Transition Andreas Kuhlmann CEO, German Energy Agency
[KST] 13:20-14:10 [CET] 05:20-06:10	50'	Presentation	Japan	Challenges towards Net Zero, based on evaluation both demand side and supply side Naomi Hirose Chair, Japan Energy Association
			China	Five Important Factors for The Energy Transition and Climate Change Sun Xiansheng Council Chairman, International Society for Energy Transition Studies
			Singapore	Transition towards Net Zero Jimmy Khoo CEO, SP PowerGrid Ltd.
			Korea	KOMIPO's Strategy to achieve Net-zero in a just and fair way Kim Hobin President & CEO, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd.
	10'	Break
[KST] 14:20-15:00 [CET] 06:20-07:00	40'	Panel Discussion and Q&A	Moderator: Lee Jae-Seung Dean, Graduate School of International Studies, Korea University
			Naomi Hirose Chair, Japan Energy Association Sun Xiansheng Council Chairman, International Society for Energy Transition Studies Jimmy Khoo CEO, SP PowerGrid Ltd. Kim Hobin President & CEO, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd.

Session Description

Many governments around the world have recently declared carbon neutrality and laid out relevant strategies for net-zero carbon emissions. The Biden administration of the U.S announced the return to the Paris Agreement, which has encouraged many more countries to strengthen their Net-Zero policies. Against this background, we have witnessed the trend that major countries have designed comprehensive climate change polices and increased investment in technology innovation. For example, the European Commission (EC) has executed specific implementation plans to ‘achieve the goals of carbon neutrality by 2050’ by proposing policy packages and implementation roadmaps in the sectors of clean energy, circular economy, energy-effective construction and sustainable transport. China has first expressed the strong will on the response to climate change by proposing the target year for Net-Zero at the government level. Since declared Net-Zero by 2050 in Oct. 2020, Korea has prepared ‘Carbon Neutral Strategy 2050’ and made efforts to accelerate energy transition by building low-carbon industry ecosystem and expanding clean energy.

According to Roadmap to Net-Zero 2050 of the IEA, Net-Zero 2050 will depend on unprecedented clean energy technology innovation. About half of the emission reduction for Net-Zero 2050 can be achieved with the technologies uncommercialized so far, which means that the technology innovation will play the central role in global Net-Zero. Accordingly, major countries have increased investment in clean energy technologies such as solar, wind, EES and CCUS and speeded up cooperation with other countries. Low-carbon technology development for Net-Zero would take quite long time from 10 to 30 years. We need to remember that late investment in technology innovation will make the transition to low-carbon economy and carbon neutrality belated further, which will generate a bigger burden in the future. The key to climate change policies for Net-Zero is to reduce GHG emissions generated from economic activities, and to this end, governments need to make a consistent and broad investment in energy technology innovation, offer incentives for low-carbon economic activities to market participants and establish the cooperation system.

In this session, we plan to first, figure out the global cooperation efforts for clean energy technologies to achieve Net-Zero, which will mark the starting point for the probably most decisive decade in our lives, second, find investment strategies for the technology cooperation between the public and private sectors and clean energy technology innovation, and third, discuss the direction for global clean energy technology innovation.

Questions

• 1. What would be major technical challenges for the transition to Net-Zero?
• 2. What is the current status of cooperation for clean energy technologies among governments? And what about the public and private partnership for technology innovation? Also, what are good ways to promote cooperation?
• 3. What should investment priorities for government and the private sector? How should such priorities set?

Session Composition

Time		Program	Contents
[KST] 15:10-16:10 [CET] 07:10-08:10	60'	Presentation	Two Vintage Decades: The Space Race and the Cleantech Race Alan Finkel Special advisor, Office of the special Adviser to the Australia Government on Low Emissions Technology
			Reaching ZERO with Renewables Dolf Gielen Director, Innovation and Technology Centre, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
			Transitioning to a sustainable energy future Vinod Philip Chief Strategy & Technology Officer, Siemens Energy AG
			Carbon Neutrality Strategy of South Korean Industries (focusing on SK Business/Technology) Lee Seong Jun Head, Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, SK Innovation
			Clean Energy Technology Innovation for the 2050 Net Zero Scenario in Korea Sohn Jeong Lak Energy Industry Managing Director, Office of R&D Strategic Planning
[KST] 16:10-16:30 [CET] 08:10-08:30	20'	Panel Discussion and Q&A	Moderator: Jennie Dodson Head of Secretariat, Mission Innovation
			Alan Finkel Special advisor, Office of the special Adviser to the Australia Government on Low Emissions Technology Dolf Gielen Director, Innovation and Technology Centre, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Vinod Philip Chief Strategy & Technology Officer, Siemens Energy AG Lee Seong Jun Head, Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, SK Innovation Sohn Jeong Lak Energy Industry Managing Director, Office of R&D Strategic Planning

Session Description

Every country in the world has declared ambitious energy transition policies for the goal of carbon neutrality and Korea, as well, has responded to such action of the international community by announcing Carbon Neutrality Declaration 2050 and Carbon Neutral Strategy 2050. Under such trend of global energy transition, it is expected to decrease the dominance of traditional fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which have been the main energy sources for the last centuries. Countries have made efforts to implement energy transition for decarbonization by radically reducing the number of coal-fired/nuclear power plants and instead, expanding the electricity generation from renewable energy. However, recently due to the limitation of coal power generation and the expansion of COVID-19 pandemic, the skyrocketed demand for natural gas, as alternative energy, has led to the rise of global natural gas price, which, in turn, has driven the increase of oil demand and price. Against this backdrop, it seems that the status of oil and gas as the most important primary energy sources would not be tainted for a while and therefore, we need to consider the fact that the importance of such traditional resources has been devalued despite such background.

It is true that when considering environmental challenges including climate change and fine dust, energy transition is obviously what we should achieve but we also need to be careful about issues like, first, how much demand for fossil fuels will decrease in 30 years or even after that and second, what policy efforts would be needed for Korea, who depends on import for most of energy in use, to achieve the soft-landing of energy transition aiming at reducing the use of fossil fuels but increasing, renewable energy. Each country has different kinds and composition of energy sources, and their major industries and the level of their economic development are also different. In particular, Korea has no geographic condition for the aggressive development of renewable energy, unlike Europe and the U.S. Under such circumstances, if we do not respond with the feasible goals and implementation plans related to resource development, it would be hard to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. And it is also likely to lose our own energy security and energy independence and therefore, we need to take a deeper consideration and respond more effectively.

In this session, we plan to first, predict what roles fossil fuels like oil and gas will play in this energy transition trend and second, figure out relevant response tasks and sustainable implementation strategies. In addition, we’d like to gain insight and discuss response strategies by analyzing the business survival strategies of global major companies, leaders in the global energy market, and Japan, net energy importer like Korea.

Questions

• 1. Lots of countries try to make energy conversion focusing on renewable energy. But how has the 2050 Net-Zero goal been evaluated so far?
• 2. Will fossil fuel be completely out of the picture due to energy conversion? If not possible, what would be the challenges for fossil fuel in the global energy market pursuing the conversion into low-carbon energy, and what needs to be done for those challenges?
• 3. What are the survival strategies of the oil and gas industries affecting a lot the economy of Korea, particularly, its manufacturing industry and whose petroleum products are imported a lot? And what policies do we need to prepare to deal with this issue?

Session Composition

Time		Program	Contents
[KST] 16:40-17:40 [CET] 08:40-09:40	60'	Presentation	Upstream CCS – can ambitions match reality? Angus Rodger Upstream Research Director, Wood Mackenzie
			The Role of LNG in Energy Transition Andrew Barry Vice President, Global LNG Marketing, ExxonMobil
			Sustainable Future of Fossil Fuel Tatsuya Terazawa Chairman & CEO of The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ)
[KST] 17:40-18:00 [CET] 09:40-10:00	20'	Panel Discussion and Q&A	Moderator: Heo Eunnyeong Professor, Seoul National University
			Angus Rodger Upstream Research Director, Wood Mackenzie Andrew Barry Vice President, Global LNG Marketing, ExxonMobil Tatsuya Terazawa Chairman & CEO of The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ) Park Soon-kee Vice Chairman, Energy & Mineral Resources Development Association of Korea (EMRD)

* The programs above are changeable depending on future situations.