Navigating Today's Energy Turbulence for a shared tomorrow: Using the World Energy Council's Rocks and Rivers Scenarios Foundations to meet demand for more and better energy

The IEA's new World Energy Outlook lands at a moment when energy is once again at the centre of geopolitical dialogue and economic risk. As countries contend with mounting security threats, shifting trade relations, growing demand, and intensifying climate change impacts, one message stands out clearly: diversification and cooperation matter more than ever.

We cannot meet the growing demand for energy services - or build systems that are secure, equitable, and sustainable in a world that is warmer, wobblier, and more heat-, waste-, and water-stressed - without collaboration.

At the World Energy Council, we developed our Rocks and Rivers scenario foundations to help make clearer sense of the different types of collaboration being deployed to meet this demand:

• Rocks represent the structural constraints and inertia in today's energy systems - from geopolitical tensions and aging infrastructure to entrenched dependencies and vested interests that can slow or reshape transitions. It represents a world more characteristed by national self-interests and industrial competitiveness.

• Rivers symbolise the fluid and emergent dynamics reshaping the future - from new technologies, to social movements, shifting demand patterns, and evolving behaviours that create both disruption and opportunities for new forms of cooperation as the old established international model continues to be strained..

The latest IEA report confirms what our community has long observed; that the world is navigating complex energy transitions - and success depends on understanding how the "rocks" and "rivers" interact .

Dr. Angela Wilkinson, Secretary General & CEO of the World Energy Council, "The world needs connection, coordination, and care."

In a world thirsty for energy and facing multiplying risks, simple truths remain relevant:

• Stability is built on the strengths of diversity.

• Energy abundance will come from interdependence done wisely.

• While technologies can connect systems,only trust will connect people.

Without trust - between governments and citizens, investors and communities, between regions and generations - it's not possible to appreciate or change the underlying energy systems on which we all depend. Trust takes time. We're short of that too. But progress will always move at different paces in different places.

As we connect the insights from the IEA Outlook with our own global scenarios work, we will continue supporting leaders in navigating uncertainty through a shared language, practical foresights, and a grounded understanding of what is really changing.