A war time slogan – Keep Calm and Carry On – that was created by the British Government in 1939 still remains very relevant as a reminder that the current oil crisis that has affected the world shouldn’t stop everything that renewable energy and cleantech has set out to achieve.
Governments have responded in different ways to the crisis. Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, embarked on a diplomatic exercise meeting his counterparts in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei to secure assurances from them that the supply of diesel and petrol will continue with the Straits of Hormuz remaining closed. Countries like Sri Lanka have imposed a national fuel rationing system as economies that rely on fuel imports wake up to the new reality that an extended supply disruption will have a major impact on their livelihoods.
Even the President of the European Commission made a cautious plea that the fuel crisis will have a major impact on the EU economy and issued a reminder that households and industries were the most vulnerable during the last energy crisis. But what made von der Leyen’s speech a standout in this global chaos was her reminder that the world was in this position because of our overdependency on fossil fuels and this is a price that we’ll pay for many years to come.
In the 1979 oil crisis, renewable energy sourced from solar or wind energy (Source: IEA) had no contribution towards the global energy supply. But that was also because none of these modern day renewable technologies existed at scale. Fast forward to 2024, 32 percent of our electricity supplied globally is sourced from renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydropower (Source: IEA). With close to 250GWh of batteries installed in the world (Source: Energy Storage News), clean energy can be stored and used to power the grid instead of coal, gas or diesel powered electricity.
The global fuel crisis is a wake‑up call
Global economies have the power to literally leave fossil fuels behind – if they were willing to fast track their investments in renewables and energy storage. Industries, businesses and governments who trade fossil fuels for renewable energy know this delivers economic certainty, energy security and energy independence.
Which is why striving to electrify our industries, electricity grids, homes and transport systems, should be a common goal through this crisis. Greater investments in utility-scale batteries, solar photovoltaic systems to electric vehicle charging infrastructure should come with additional funding to modernise the grid to meet the growth of renewable energy and electrification.
The role of communications in a time of disruption
Marketers and communications practitioners who truly understand the magnitude of this opportunity will re-centre their campaigns to position an investment in renewables – whether it’s for households, businesses or at a grid-scale – as one about cost certainty, reliability and control. This isn’t a time to press ahead with talking about climate goals or how green marketing is the answer. Not reframing your narrative or messaging leaves you in danger of alienating your audiences. In fact, marketers and communication practitioners could come across as tone deaf with campaigns that do not convert if they don’t pivot their positioning.
Reworking a value proposition around energy independence and energy resilience in a crisis builds confidence for communities to act and this could accelerate the energy transition.
While marketers and communication practitioners can’t solve the energy crisis, they can shape how it’s understood and how people respond to it. The biggest risk right now is saying something that no longer matters, or failing to remind people of how renewable energy can help them regain control of their lives, have more certainty and live with resilience.
About Gabriel Wong,
Co-Founder of Positive Good
Gabriel has spent over two decades managing integrated marketing and communications campaigns for cleantech and technology brands in Asia Pacific and Australia. He’s a long term partner of Spreckley having worked on a number of multi-market and international campaigns for some of our clean and greentech clients.
He’s developed and managed campaigns for energy and cleantech companies including Energy Renaissance, Eku Energy, ENGIE, GreenSync, deX, Enphase Energy, SolarMax, sonnen, SwitchDin, Yingli Solar, Landis+Gyr, REC Solar, Ecoult Energy Storage and Star Scientific.
Gabriel has a sound understanding of the energy industry and the issues, government policies, regulations, standards, technologies, key stakeholders and opinion forming media who surround the cleantech and renewables industry.
To learn more about his work and agency, go to Positive Good’s website.
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