Europe's energy outlook: The race against the clock

Matthew Arndt has more than 20 years of experience in sustainable transport solutions and urban development. In his current role, he heads the EIB Environment, Climate and Social Office, which has a mandate to provide expert advice and support on climate change, environmental and social matters, in view of enhancing the quality of the projects financed by the Bank. His responsibilities include assisting in building the Bank’s climate change strategy.

Chris Beddoes is Director General of FuelsEurope (former EUROPIA), the voice in Brussels of the European petroleum refining industry. He is also Director General of a sister organisation CONCAWE, which carries out research on environmental, health and safety issues relevant to the oil industry. He graduated in Chemical Engineering and has over 30 years of experience with oil refining, supply and distribution.

Jos Delbeke became the first Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Climate Action, after having served as Deputy Director General of DG Environment. He participated in several negotiation processes on climate change and energy at the inter-institutional and international levels and has been a key player in developing Europe’s international climate change strategy.

With more than 18 years of experience in the energy sector, Christopher Delbrück is currently Chief Executive Officer of E.ON Global Commodities (EGC), the energy trading business of E.ON and one of the leading participants in international wholesale energy markets. Under his leadership, EGC is responsible for optimizing one of Europe’s broadest and most diverse power and gas portfolios and for identifying new opportunities to create value in global energy commodity markets.

Karsten Neuhoff is expert in climate and energy economics. His research focuses mainly on climate policy, emissions trading, energy market design, renewable integration and technology policy and he coordinates several European and international projects in these areas. He is also a member of the research network Climate Strategies and leading author of its report “Staying with the leaders – Europe’s path to a successful low-carbon economy”.

Key figure in Italian economic policies and Deputy Minister of Economic Development for the Renzi Government, De Vincenti holds the Italian energy portfolio. As current chair of the EU Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council, his presidency priorities in the field of energy policy include the framework for climate and energy beyond 2020, with a special focus on energy efficiency; EU energy security; the completion of the single energy market; and external energy policy.

Ingrid Holmes’ work focuses on how to better target financing for the low carbon transition in Europe as well as how to accelerate it by reforming capital markets. Prior to working for E3G, she worked for Climate Change Capital, a boutique investment bank specialising in low carbon investment, and as Energy and Environment Adviser in the UK Parliament and Science Policy Adviser at the Department for Environment. She also worked for nine years in science publishing and journalism, with her last role based in New York working for the Nature Publishing Group. Holmes has recently been appointed member of the European Union High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance.

Auke Lont has more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry acquired through several leading positions in both Norwegian and international energy companies. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Statnett, a Norwegian state owned enterprise responsible for electricity transmission and distribution in Norway and thus operating and developing the country’s power grid, and Chairman of the Institute for Energy Technology, Norway.

Claude Turmes has been the Minister for Energy of Luxembourg since 2018. Within his role, he leads a pilot study that aims to determine the ecological transition of Luxembourg and achieve a zero-carbon cross-border country by 2050. Prior to joining government, Turmes was a long-standing member of the European Parliament, where he vice-chaired the parliamentary group of the Green Party. He was also the rapporteur of the directive on renewable energies, the second directive on the liberalisation of the energy market and the energy efficiency directive.

Former journalist, Buchan has over 30 years of experience covering energy and defense for Financial Times in Brussels, Washington DC and Paris. At the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies he specialises in European Union energy and climate policy, and has published several books and reports, including “Energy and Climate Change: Europe at the Crossroads“ (2009), and more recently “Europe’s energy security: caught between short-term needs and long-term goals”.

Fulco van Lede has pursued a long-standing career at SHV Energy, occupying various senior positions, such as Store Manager MAKRO SHV in Philippines, CEO of SHV Energy China and currently Management Board member of SHV Energy. This family-owned multinational company provides over 30 million domestic and commercial customers in three continents with decentralised and personalised energy solutions and services. It’s main focus in on LPG, LNG, biomass and renewable energy.

Linda DuCharme has more than 25 years of experience working for ExxonMobil. She assumed the role of Vice President Gas & Power Marketing for Europe, Russia and Caspian in 2011 and is now responsible for marketing of ExxonMobil’s natural gas and natural gas liquids, natural gas infrastructure and marketing joint ventures in Europe, Russia and the Caspian. Her previous responsibilities include managing the European gas supply, the natural gas liquids and infrastructure for Europe and flowing gas businesses in Qatar, Australia, and Malaysia, as well as the global ExxonMobil power portfolio.

Mechthild Wörsdörfer is the Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s DG ENER, prior to which she was director for sustainability, technology and outlooks at the International Energy Agency. Wörsdörfer has previously held several roles at DG ENER, including as director in charge of renewables, research and innovation, and energy efficiency. She has also served as the DG ENER director responsible for energy policy, international relations, legal aspects and economic analysis. In this position, she managed the development of the Energy Union framework strategy and Governance, as well as external aspects of EU energy policy.

Bryony Worthington is a Labour peer, Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change in the House of Lords and a prolific campaigner for action to tackle climate change. She wrote the very first report in the UK calling for the introduction of ‘carbon budgets’ and was the brains behind the Friends of the Earth ‘Big Ask’ campaign. She set up Sandbag, a not-for-profit campaign group dedicated to fighting climate change and promoting a low-carbon future via the emissions trading systems.