The energy transition and societal change are interwoven in Rotterdam
Yusuf Latief
Posted on: 7 October 2022
Alexander van Steenderen from the Municipality of Rotterdam unpacks how it the energy transition is causing and requires societal change.
In an exclusive interview, Alexander van Steenderen, Strategic Policy Advisor Energy Transition to the Municipality of Rotterdam, compares the energy transition to the industrial revolution and unpacks how it is both causing and requires societal change.
According to Van Steenderen comparing the transition with the industrial revolution provides meaningful insight into how interwoven energy has, and will continue to be, with society.
“We’re building a brand new [energy] system and at the same time abolishing the old one. This is going to cause scarcity, which we haven’t known about for 200 years.”
Listen to:
Energy Transitions Podcast: Managing risk in an energy revolution
Factors working to hasten this, he states, are major events like the war in Ukraine, which are necessitating the transitions. And what it has wrought is a “very tense period in which we have to allocate the energy we have in the most efficient way possible".
The shock brought on to the system is not just in terms of energy, but also on the economy, which in Europe has suffered as a result of the tense situation.
“So that's why I always go back to the industrial revolution, to show how interwoven and changed our society and energy has become.”
More from Enlit on the Road Rotterdam:
Investing in green energy innovation in Rotterdam
Port of Rotterdam – How to make the biggest European port carbon neutral
Rotterdam: Driving the energy transition with action, not words
Watch the rest of this Enlit on the Road Rotterdam interview with Van Steenderen to hear his take on such a comparison, the city-wide implications of the energy transition and the Rotterdam Sustainability Compass.
