The Center on Global Energy Policy hosted a presentation and discussion on Equinor's Energy Perspectives 2018 Edition with Eirik Wærness, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at Equinor. The Energy Perspectives report addresses some of the key questions facing the global energy market – how much will energy demand grow over the coming decades? Is the world going through an energy transition? What is the future investment need in energy supply? The projection period runs until 2050 and covers all the main regions, sectors and fuels.
In order to capture the wide outcome space for future energy markets, Energy Perspectives uses three scenarios based on different assumptions about regional and global economic growth, geopolitics, technological development, energy efficiency, and energy and climate policies:
- Reform, which takes as a starting point the national climate targets of the Paris agreement (COP21), and puts gradually more weight on market-driven developments in global energy markets, with policies playing a supportive role.
- Renewal, which is a very ambitious back-casted scenario delivering a trajectory for emissions consistent with the 2-degree target.
- Rivalry, which is impacted by geopolitical conflict and larger differences in regional developments, both with regard to economic development and transformation of the energy systems.
