The ONS 2026 theme is announced at a time of great uncertainty and volatility. That state of affairs is nothing new, per se, we have faced that many times. What is new is that we are facing this uncertainty and this volatility across the board: economy, politics, climate, geopolitics, security, society.

Energy cuts squarely across these issues and is both cause of uncertainty and volatility as well as the solution to these challenges. This makes the 2026 edition of ONS more important – and more cross-cutting and interdisciplinary – than ever before.

So what would be an appropriate theme for times of such seismic and lasting transformations? A moment that can foreshadow both cataclysmic futures but also unprecedented opportunities? Which path will we choose? And what are the decisions we need to take today to ensure that tomorrow’s prospects provide hope and inspiration?

The answer to these questions depends to a very large extent on the very theme we will be discussing at ONS. As announced, the 2026 theme of ONS is COURAGE.

Oxford dictionary says the following about the 2026 theme of ONS: It’s the ‘ability to do something that frightens one’. An alternative interpretation is ‘strength in the face of pain or grief’.

So if we take Oxford dictionary by its word, what is it that frightens us and demands courage? What is the pain or grief we’re feeling that requires courage to overcome?

Is it the wars on Europe’s doorstep which are palpably coming closer?

Is it the turmoil in global markets and the withering of the global, rules-based order?

Is the seemingly unstoppable warming of our planet and simultaneous loss of biodiversity?

Is it the global trend towards authoritarianism and the hollowing out of the political center?

I could go on and on but I won’t because we are all aware of what I am describing here. Rather, I want to appeal to you that with courage we can solve problems, we can finish what we started, and we can build a better, more sustainable and inclusive future. Nowhere is that more true than in the energy transition which has - and is - changing the world in ways more profound than any of us could have ever anticipated.

And yes, perhaps that has frightened us and it has also brought us grief as we learned that transitions take longer, are more expensive and disruptive, and less unilinear, than we thought. But what is the solution? To give in, to acquiesce, to NOT finish what we started?

There were always good reasons to transition away from fossil energy: first and foremost because of the climate. As CO2 emissions continue to rise, our globe is quite literally feeling the heat. As if that is not enough, extreme weather events are increasing exponentially, here and all over the world.

But more recently also other considerations such as energy security have come to the fore. As natural gas was weaponized by Russia against Europe amidst the fallout of the Ukraine war, we learned the hard way what dependency on an autocratic country and an easily tradable, globally sought-after commodity means: extreme volatility, including in prices. By the summer of 2022 – six months into the Ukraine war – the price of natural gas in Europe was eight times what it was before the war.

Imagine the ensuing fallout, the cost-of-living crisis, exploding inflation, inevitable deindustrialization as companies could no longer profitably manufacture. What a timely wakeup call that in today’s world energy is – and should be – part and parcel of security and even defence policies. Recently the International Energy Agency organized the first Energy Security Summit together with the UK government because this is now a global preoccupation of all countries, companies and even individual households.

The same is true for competitiveness and industrial policy. Clean technologies have built new markets, created new business models, been a driver of innovation, productivity, entrepreneurship. And trust me, this is about way more than wind and solar. In the pipeline are a whole slew of new technologies: batteries and other storage solutions, advanced geothermal, a new generation of nuclear power, synthetic fuels, and so much more. Especially utilities are increasingly turning into technology companies as they help optimize energy systems and pave the way for what has been described as the age of electrification.

It is not without reason that Bloomberg NEF concludes that global investment in clean energy technologies hit a record of $2.1 trillion in 2024. This represents 11% growth from 2023 totals and is more than double the total investment made in 2020. Who doesn’t want a piece of that?

So if you hear me speak about these benefits that underpin the energy transition – still the only way to successfully address the climate crisis; a driver and guarantor of more security, sovereignty and resilience; and the backbone of future competitiveness – you may wonder why we need courage to pursue something so sensible?

My answer: because we are often too complacent, too short-sighted, and very unfortunately, too naïve.

And that’s the tricky thing about any transition which by definition challenges the status quo, the familiar, the incumbents – otherwise we wouldn’t be speaking about a transition. And that is perhaps part of the grief and pain that the Oxford dictionary refers to.

Also, when you replace or supplement one system with another, by definition you incur costs; costs which our traditional ways of public accounting have proven woefully inadequate at. How to price in security and resilience? What is the appropriate cost of fixed and CAPEX-intensive assets that produce home-grown energy rather than relying on imports from elsewhere in the midst of an increasingly fractious trade system?

And how do we address the inherent human wish to hope for the best. As admirable as this quality is, it has now at times become a liability in a world so volatile, so contested and so unpredictable. That’s why I purposefully referred to naivite because I want this to be a wakeup call. Yes, by all means, hope for the best but be prepared for the worse. As I know from experience – and after well over 20 years of working in public policy – this preparedness requires extensive courage because we will have to speak hard truths, make trade-offs, finish what we started, even when we face the fiercest of headwinds.

That is why I have high hopes that the next edition of ONS can help us muster:

• The Courage to not only imagine but to implement
• The Courage to not only talk but put our money where our mouth is
• The Courage to accept that transitions are not unilinear but highly disruptive and often unpredictable

If we muster that courage, we will find the strength, we will overcome the grief, we will be able to exert the leadership that has never been more needed than today.

Thank you for your attention and see you at ONS 2026!  

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Read more about the ONS 2026 Theme.

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