Whole system thinking

We have all, I’m sure, listened to and read a lot about the obstacles along the virtuous path to net zero. Unabated fossil fuels, for instance. Obnoxious people unwilling to compromise their comfort by making their energy demand more flexible. Governments with finite financial resources to pour into net zero. Yet one important challenge has more or less stayed outside the spotlight, and very unfairly. Luckily for us, there are people who have dedicated their work hours to helping human civilisation overcome these challenges by means of reports, and bring those unfairly ignored into the spotlight.

“The dilemma we face is to balance the energy system whilst in transition. Polarized views can obscure the fundamental reality that the energy sector is deeply intertwined, meaning that it is a monumental challenge to prioritize one area over another unless we take into account all parts of the energy system and the adjacent areas like socio-economic developments, nature and bio-diversity,” said a senior VP at DNV in remarks accompanying the release of DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook for the UK earlier this month.

The Norwegian company that I dare not describe because it calls itself one thing (“an independent assurance and risk management provider”) but releases energy transition outlooks, put the words “whole system thinking” in the title of its news release — that’s how you know this whole system thinking is important, so important, in fact, its absence could derail the whole transition and doom us to eternal reliance on fossil fuels and failure to meet emission reduction targets. As we are all well aware, this is an unacceptable scenario.