CERAWEEK 2026 DAY4: CONVERGENCE & COMPETITION: ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY, & GEOPOLITICS
- Michael Thervil
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Written by Michael Thervil
[CERAWeek energy technology geopolitics] As things are winding down for this year's CERAWeek convention, starting as early as 7:15am Latin America and West Asia (Middle East) in terms of U.S. policy and strategy seemed to dominate the headlines for the day. While the world seems to be focusing on the Strait of Hormuz and the multitude of geopolitical ramifications that are sure to come to the forefront, yesterday's panel chose to shift their focus from attempting to “contain” Iran to “conflict management" when it comes to engaging Iran. This panel which was led by S&P Global Energy Moderator Carlos Pascual featured Kristian Diwan (Senior Arab Scholar from the Arab Gulf States Institute), Stanford University's Admiral James “Jim” Ellis, and David Satterfield who serves as the Director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University discussed ways on how to reduce or limit socio-economic shock throughout the region as well as through the international community.
Yesterday's agenda also included talks on U.S. Energy and Policy Regulation during the Leadership Dialogue with Laura V. Scott who currently serves as the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Those that attended this session, which was moderated by S&P Global’s Daniel Yergin, was considered a great topic of concern and importance due to both the rising cost of energy, energy consumption, and increased demand for energy creation for the sole purpose of running AI operations. The “Power Trilemma” was another great session that addressed the issue of how to provide solutions for reliable, affordable, and low carbon energy, a feat that many detractors believe will cost more to embark on than what it's worth in the long run.
Geothermal Energy creation and extraction also came back to the forefront as Senior Vice President and Chief Energy Strategist of S&P Global Energy Atal Arya took to the stage to talk about what they are doing in his sector to reach net zero carbon emissions in the not-so-distant future. While detractors are taking the position that the creation and extraction of Geothermal Energy which is a renewable energy source is currently too costly to directly compete with the current state of Fossil Fuel production and rate of consumption, Atua Arya appears to be countering their arguments with his argument that “geothermal [energy] acts as a foundational heat source for scalable urban and industrial infrastructure”.
As with every CERAWeek, the Agora, which was held in the adjacent George R. Brown building, was filled with smaller micro-sessions that operated simultaneously during the operation of the planetary and various other mid-sized breakout sessions. The Agora section of CERAWeek allows for small, medium, and large scaled businesses, as well as students and universities to talk about and demonstrate their thoughts, products, and services within the oil, gas, logistics, energy, and Artificial Intelligence sectors. It should be noted that this year's CERAWeek would not be complete if the subject of LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) didn't come into play. Talks and showcases concerning low carbon density and gigawatts also were conducted in this year’s CERAWeek conference.
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