Climate and Energy

The year 2024 could be the hottest year on record. At the same time, global energy consumption continues to grow. How can development continue sustainably to ensure a future that is both economically viable and good for the environment?

This is the main focus of ICTP's International Symposium on Energy and Climate, taking place this week from 22 to 23 August. Renowned speakers from some of the world's most important energy and climate organizations-- including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- will address the opportunities and scientific challenges that climate change presents to the energy sector.

Reducing carbon emissions is increasingly urgent, as is the need to meet growing energy needs, especially in the global south, where a large part of the population still lacks access to electricity. Tackling climate change all the while ensuring economic growth requires a closer dialogue between policy makers and scientists working in the energy and climate sectors, which the International Symposium on Energy and Climate aims to stimulate.

The event reflects a commitment by ICTP and the Symposium co-organiser, Climate Compatible Growth (CCG), to promote climate change research in the Global South. “At this symposium policy analysts and government advisors are coming together with scientists from leading universities worldwide, and especially from the global south, to interact with key stakeholders in the field and explore the opportunities that hide in the big challenge to ensure economic growth in a heating world,”explains Mark Howells of Imperial College London and Loughborough University, who represents the CCG as program director.

“Any realistic response to the ‘climate challenge’ to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic warming of the planet must  simultaneously address the ‘energy challenge’ to meet the growing energy needs of humans. This symposium will facilitate an international dialogue that considers these two critical questions together in their totality and not in isolation.  With participants coming from across the developing world, this symposium reflects ICTP’s unique role as a research institute where international scientists can join forces and work side by side to address these challenges, independently of the geopolitical barriers that stand between them,” says ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar, adding, “Tackling these global issues  requires a common effort. ICTP is a unique catalyst for collaboration, in line with its mission to promote advanced scientific knowledge worldwide.”

Speakers at the symposium will include leading scientists in the fields of energy and climate; and representatives of international, public and private organizations that are exploring new, clean energy sources, such as ITER , the large international collaboration for fusion energy.

Symposium attendees will include the nearly 100 participants of an ICTP two-week intensive school on modelling tools for energy and economic development, who came to Trieste from 20 different countries across four different continents.

The main conclusions reached during this two-day event on energy, climate, and the technological as well as financial challenges associated with the transition to clean energy, will inform further discussions that will take place at ICTP’s 60th anniversary main event, taking place in Trieste on 15 November 2024.

Links:

Conference webpage: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10759/

Conference Live Streaming: Day 1 | Day 2