This year’s Greek-British Symposium (see www.greekbritishsymposium.com) took place in Cambridge, UK on October 9-11 and attracted some 100 high level delegates from academia, government and business. The key issues of the agenda included economics and politics, defence, health and energy.
“Investing in Energy” was the title of the energy panel which was expertly moderated by John Roberts, of Methinks, and acclaimed energy security expert. The panel participants included Mehmet Ogutcu, Chair, Globla Resources Partnership, and also chair of the London Energy Club, Nick Butler, Visiting Professor & Chaor King’s Policy Institute, King’s College, London, Apostolos Gkoutzinis, Partner,Millbank,George Stratigis, Manager at the CEO’s office, Helleniq Energy and Costis Stambolis, Chairman and Executive Director of the IENE. The issues discussed focused on the energy transition and the difficulties facing the substitution of fossil fuels, which, despite heavy investment in renewables over the last 15 years or so, are still dominating world energy supply to the tune of 86% of final energy consumption.
As the panel noted, Europe is now well into the transition from fossil fuels to renewables in an effort to contain and eventually reduce CO2 emissions. Over the longer term, final energy uses will be fully electrified and demand for electricity further boosted by novel applications linked to the advance of AI. Renewables will dominate primary energy production. Fossil fuels, and particularly natural gas, will remain important during the transition. Nuclear energy could, under certain assumptions, substitute for legacy fuels and accelerate the transition. Huge investment in connectivity and a total rethink of their functioning will be required to integrate the regional European electricity markets into a single efficient one. Greece and Britain, both at the extremities of Europe, are leaders in renewable energy, with Britain also retaining strong expertise in oil, gas and nuclear energy, making a strong case for cooperation in the course to new energy.
The Greek-British Symposium is a privately led and sponsorship-funded initiative in partnership with the British Embassy in Athens and the Greek Embassy in London, delivered by the Delphi Economic Forum. Its mission is to strengthen the links between the two countries to mutual benefit.
The Symposium was launched in October 2017, in Nafplion, Greece; continued the next year in Ditchley Park in the UK, and returned to Nafplion in 2019. In 2020 we delivered the Symposium in a hybrid format for safety reasons, with only a limited number of speakers gathering physically in Athens and the rest joining online. In 2022, we returned to a fully physical event hosted at Pembroke College, Oxford and last year we returned to Nafplion.
The Symposium is an annual, by invitation only, event which brings together leaders in politics, business, academia, media and culture from the UK and Greece for an exchange of views and ideas on the challenges and opportunities facing our countries and on how to enrich the relationship between them.
