Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum
In June 2025, CEC Chair, Melanie Chen attended this forum in DC. There were also additional private dinners and events on the sidelines of the forum.
Key takeaways from the forum:
- Geopolitical focus was on containing Israel-Iran conflict to a bilateral and not region wide issue
- There is a race to “generating electrons” as this will determine which country will be the tech leader in AI
- AI uses 100 x more energy than a simple Google search
- Convergence of importance of energy security with tech leadership
- Nuclear (and potentially energy efficiency) are seen as the bridges to surging energy needs
- Timeline for increased energy access is “now’ but buildout will take time
- Bankable energy projects were solar, wind, nuclear with many saying H2 was not there yet
- World Bank has lifted recently restriction on financing nuclear and other dev banks are likely to follow
- Natural gas/LNG is long term fuel for both US and Europe
