All talk?

Responding to evolving member needs

For associations that have traditionally served professionals deployed to the oil and gas sector, the energy transition agenda is also about listening and responding to changing member needs.

Engineers, for example, are seeing a shift in societal acceptance and demand toward more sustainable energy, and expanded opportunities in fields like carbon capture and storage.

Associations serving energy industries are being nudged to meet the needs of professionals working in emerging economies. And educational programs are also focusing on building new competencies in policy development, regulation and science communication.

All of these forces combine into an opportunity for associations connected to energy industries to evolve their purpose and empower the professionals who have the knowledge and the skills to find solutions to climate change.

“The members I work with are very passionate about these topics,” says James Whitaker, senior young member programs manager for the Society of Petroleum Engineers International.

“They want to be part of the solution. If industries can work together, using skills from the oil and gas industry, solutions can be developed a lot faster. While the members I speak with agree on the problem, the debate is how we go about solving it and how quickly that can happen.”

Glen Burridge, executive director of the European Federation of Geologists, says transition themes are now a fundamental focus of the organisation's meetings.

"It dominates all discussions around low carbon geological energy, how we tackle the emissions that are created and the metals and other raw materials that are required for engineering the facilities. How this transition plays out with define the industries we geologists work in, what jobs are created and how we can help. It's a huge moment."

This can create what Burridge refers to as 'positive complications'.

"The pace of innovation and policy developments is extraordinary, so it is challenging keeping up with even one thread in this spectrum of activities. Equally, this movement - spurred by the latest research and innovation - is leading to the hybridisation of existing solutions, so we now have the meeting of sectors, which previously had little reason to interact. This leads to brushing up on topics you may not have encountered since university, but these are in many ways the new cutting edges and pioneers of our science."

A rethink? Or merely a rebrand?

The oil and gas industry is aiming to improve its image and that influences the decisions companies make about exhibiting at and sponsoring association events. Some associations are responding by setting up zones dedicated to the energy transition for companies offering solutions in this area. "The WPC Energy Congress did that," Rotchild said "by including a Cleantech Expo and a Sustainability and Social Responsibility Pavilion."

But does the presence of oil and gas exhibitors and sponsors influence event agendas? And does a climate friendly image really mean action to reduce emissions?

“Taking a sponsor’s money and flashing their logo around doesn’t live up to the responsibility event professionals have. There is a bigger opportunity,” says Rotchild.

“I’ve always been a proponent of engagement. But it has to be the right kind of engagement. For example an organiser can decide: ‘We feel this partnership is important. And we are willing to give you a platform to speak to our audience. But you have to be willing to talk about the difficult things. So if you’re not looking at scope 3 emissions you have to stand up in front of our audience and say why, and engage in the questions they have about that.’”

And let’s not forget: integrity cuts both ways. So sponsors may be equally discerning, probing events that they work with about their sustainability plans to reduce the risk of negative associations.

The great crew change

Yet skepticism about the oil and gas industry’s commitment to reducing emissions persists: can a leopard really change its spots?

This is a key question for new workers the industry needs to attract if it is to manage the major crew change that has happened during the pandemic, when many veterans retired. And young workers are unlikely to be content with a simple rebranding of business as usual.

“The truth is, oil and gas needs students and young professionals. If there are no new people coming in, the progress stops. A lot of the conversations within our events are about these challenges. My message to young people is: we need you to make it better,” says Whitaker.

How will we know it’s better?

This leaves the million dollar question: what are the measures of success? How to evaluate the outcomes of meetings that focus on the energy transition, when the process itself is complex and takes time?

“It's difficult to measure outcomes,” Whitaker states. “As a society we wouldn’t take credit for an individual member’s effort, even if it originated at an SPE meeting. The ultimate outcome we aim for is that people have come to one of our conferences, they’ve met someone or learned something or they’ve listened to a debate that has influenced their decisions within the workplace and that leads them to run something more efficiently or push an agenda that they hadn’t previously considered.”

Burridge adds: "The most tangible impact of meetings will be in sharing technological and earth observation insights, then sparking innovation and investment, supported by effective stakeholder education and engagement. This triad of technical, investment, and socio-political is the constant wheel-of-action we need to think about."

Rotchild takes a high-level view. “We need to improve metrics that gauge the impact of events on all sectors, including energy. The quality of the data is debatable. But there are some metrics that really matter and ultimately, when it comes to energy transitions, the footprint of oil and gas should be going down. That would be a sign of success.”

He added “There was some really good Indigenous and economic reconciliation content in the event. And while climate denial has been alive and on display at previous iterations, it’s clear that conversation is now dead. It's all about decoupling growth of the sector from carbon now. However, there is not enough serious attention to Scope 3 and we as a country are sending very confusing messages about our position on energy transition mostly because we are so misaligned as Canadians and different levels of government. It was obvious to all the international dignitaries that Canada is still in the midst of fighting this out amongst itself."

Most of us struggle in situations where there is bad in good, and good in bad. We yearn for a singular polar solution and avoid uncertain situations that force us to suspend our preferred outcome and listen to those with opposing views, not knowing where that might lead.

I admit that includes me, and my view fossil fuels must be phased out as soon as possible. I also realise, however, that it took my own family four generations and migration across three countries and two continents before we finally left the coal mines behind. And we simply don’t have that amount of time to mess about being divided when it comes to the climate challenge.

So, if we cannot create safe spaces to talk about energy transitions at association events, where professionals have skin in the game and are willing to explore opposing ideas, where and how else will we engage? As Rotchild says, opting out is not an alternative for this generation.