Yuri Shafranik Calls for the IEF to Take More Action on the Climate Change Crisis

Yuri Shafranik Calls for the IEF to Take More Action on the Climate Change Crisis

World demand for fuel, especially for transport, is beginning to soar in the wake of the Covid pandemic slowdown, even as the issues of climate change become even more insistent. Rain has fallen on the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet for the first time, and summer wildfires have been raging through Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Canada and the USA releasing over 340 megatonnes of carbon. Comparing the amount of solar energy being absorbed by the earth, and the amount reradiated back into space, NASA scientists say that the energy imbalance has doubled over the past 15 years, making it even more imperative to find answers to the energy crisis.

Celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year, the International Energy Forum has seen its global role expand of late. With over 71 member countries, including Russia, China and India, its worldwide mandate looks at all energy-related issues, such as renewable fuel, sustainability, oil, gas, new technologies, energy poverty and data transparency. But is it just a talking shop? Should it be more proactive on climate change matters?

Energy specialist Yuri Shafranik, chairman of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia and founder of SoyuzNefteGaz, certainly thinks so. Since its inception, he has witnessed the ever-widening role of the IEF and says: “It’s a notable organisation. Manufacturers listen to its opinion, and its analytics are considered to be the pulse of the industry.” 

Yuri Shafranik believes that: “The Forum has played and continues to play its role as a premier, high-level organisation, but it could be playing a more significant and influential role. It has acquired a prestigious status. The need for such an approach as theirs is growing in the world, and it becomes more significant for deep discussions between consumers and producers. Synchronisation in listening to each other, otherwise crises will threaten the industry.”

Recent IEF initiatives have included the creation of a methane emissions measurement methodology to help countries achieve their climate change goals. Other activities have included exploring demand for captured carbon, assessing the demand for aviation fuel in the light of the global pandemic and commerciality of future clean energy technologies. 

Greater attention needs to be focused on these broader energy issues, feels Shafranik, and Russia can play a significant role in those developments as it has been an active member since the Forum was established.  

“Russia has an urgent need, opportunity and potential to speak and submit its proposals – not in some narrowly focused sense, but also to address the climate agenda and, again, not just about oil but broader energy issues. Let’s not forget the nuclear industry, hydrogen, gas hydrates, bioenergy, or options for cross-border transfer of this energy,” he adds.

“The International Energy Forum has done a lot in collecting general data, which is of great value. No one else has been collecting data like that. They collected materials from the atmosphere and were able to predict the CO2 calculation. But there are not only CO2 emissions – we also have a problem with many other types of harmful emissions, all of which should be considered,” stresses Yuri Shafranik. 

Russia’s geography covers a vast range of landscapes, from the frozen seas of the north to the sands of the Karakum Desert, providing an opportunity to lead the world in climate change research.  

“Our water, forests, even our ice allow us to interpret the effects of climate change differently and widely, and we must lead most of the world in our interpretations on the climate agenda,” says the expert. He believes it is now more than just a matter of oil, since the wider energy market had to be considered in the light of climate change, and the IEF should play an active role. 

“It’s all integral and more serious. Such things should be discussed in a competent manner, both in closed and open discussion. The world over these past 30 years, even over the last 10, has shrunk informationally and geographically. We live in an entirely different world today,” Yuri Shafranik concludes.