Exploring disruptive, emerging ecosystems at the European Regional Scenarios Workshop

Home > News & Views > Exploring disruptive, emerging ecosystems at the European Regional Scenarios Workshop

< Back

The Council was excited to organise the first European regional scenarios workshop with an ‘innovation twist’, supported by its French Member Committee, which took place in Paris, on 6-7 September.

The workshop convened a diverse group of regional energy leaders, experts from Europe and the Council’s members, to facilitate strategic knowledge exchange and promote open discussion of energy transition challenges, changing consumers behaviours and innovation opportunities. The participants developed three narratives to 2040 and explored how new and emerging ecosystems might disrupt energy values chains in each.

“The Conseil Français de l’Énergie was very honoured to host the European workshop. I want to thank all participants and congratulate Angela, Ged and all the team for their brilliant illustration of our debate. Our reflections on key European drivers are essential and the focus on innovation could be a keystone of the European scenarios. I am very excited to participate in the next workshop to further stimulate these Issues.”

Jean Eudes Moncomble, Secretary General,
French member committee

In 2016, the Council published three exploratory scenarios – Modern Jazz, Unfinished Symphony and Hard Rock – with a long-term horizon of 2060, aimed at supporting and informing negotiations on the transition to a low carbon economy. The Council is launching a new round of regional scenario development focused on building regional scenarios with a timeframe of 2040 and with the aim to dig deeper into the new customers logic and broad and fast shifting landscape of innovation which is being driven from within and beyond the current energy system.

To facilitate strategic knowledge exchange on key energy challenges and transition drivers in Europe
Develop European regional scenario narratives to 2040 and engage with critical uncertainties
Promote the wider and deeper use of regional scenarios to better serve the Council’s inclusive global agenda community, and engage new and diverse energy businesses and stakeholders.
Clarify the role of innovation in energy transition before 2040 – explore the Constellation of Disruptions emerging from within and beyond the region

The workshop was also an opportunity to share the findings of stocktaking that is conducted as preparatory work before the workshop. This includes a combination of a selective set of strategic interviews with senior energy leaders in the region and analysis of key transition drivers. The post-workshop stage will involve preparing the European scenarios narratives and quantification.

A follow up on the European regional workshop is being planned for November 2018. The next regional workshop will be hosted by the UAE Member Committee focusing on the Gulf region, on 30 – 31 October in Abu-Dhabi. The new sets of regionally focussed scenarios and innovation insights will be featured as one of the key elements of the 24th World Energy Congress that will take place in Abu-Dhabi in 2019.