Futures Thinking 2024 Energy and Environmental Sustainability

Thinking of the future

Futures thinking empowers us to actively engage with tomorrow's challenges and opportunities, acting as a blueprint to craft and influence the future landscape.

Energy and Environmental Sustainability

Energy and Resources

• Energy costs will persist at elevated levels until bold decisions regarding alternative sources are taken.
• Resource security will heavily influence geopolitics in the upcoming year, particularly concerning lithium, rare earth metals, and water.
• Significant Solar, Wind, and storage solutions face delays until 2025 due to the political cycle.
• Anticipate significant breakthroughs in battery technology, possibly within defense settings.

Environmental Sustainability

• Expect significant disputes over achieving net-zero goals to be prominent topics during democratic elections.
• The concept of an “extinction economy” is likely to surface, challenging systemic issues and urging capitalists to decide whether to invest in short-term gains or commit to long-term sustainability.
• Amidst the cost of living crisis, unsustainable businesses may exploit the situation for profit, but this may mark the final year for such exploitative opportunities as sustainability becomes increasingly imperative.
• The plight of Kiribati will enter popular discourse

Futures

• Historical utilities are expected to continue disrupting the net-zero transition, posing challenges to the adoption of renewable energy at a faster pace.
• Expect the emergence of winners within the renewable energy sector as certain technologies and companies gain traction and dominance.
• Off-grid power solutions will likely expand; however, it’s crucial to frame this expansion within the context of resilience rather than complete independence from centralized grids.
• Societal electrification will lead to ambitious targets for electrical abundance, marking a fundamental shift towards sustainable and widespread access to electrical resources.
• Within the UK context, the debate over the regressive standing charge and lack of investment may reignite discussions about the nationalization of power, highlighting the need for substantial reform and strategic decisions.

• Futures Thinking 2024

TPEX thinks about the future.