EFG Executive Director’s digest – August 2022 – Part 1

Dear all,

I want to introduce you to a new Newsletter that I will be publishing to show you about my activities as the Executive Director of EFG and allow you to ask questions and offer suggestions on how we can be more effective for the profession we represent!

The first half of 2022 has been incredibly busy and we made the most of the ability to finally meet people in-person again around Europe and in Brussels.

With so much going on, I’m going to break this into two……this one for what I’ve been involved in more widely or online, the second part for those activities in Brussels itself.

In the autumn, as we settle down into a phase of consolidation of several of the in-house initiatives we’ve been working hard on and more Brussels-centric events, I’ll give you another update on where we are with those before the next Council Meeting in November.

eartH2 Strategy Workshop Paris, France – April

One of the most exciting developments in terms of new ways geology can contribute to the energy transition in the last year or so has been the recognition of the subsurface’s role in both storing and potentially producing hydrogen.

At EFG, we have been at the forefront of these new developments, with membership of a rapidly growing industrial alliance earthH2 with a seat on its Steering Committee and several of its Working Groups. This has been one of the first benefits of the new strategic partnership we negotiated with industrial alliance Pole Avenia, who have spearheaded this initiative. It also builds on our COP26 side-event in association with the Geological Society of London and University of Glasgow on this topic.

In April, myself and Pavlos Tyrologou, EFG External Relations Officer, met with the eartH2 team at the Société Geologique de France’s offices in Paris. I facilitated a framing session to shape eartH2’s European strategy on natural hydrogen – which EFG is well positioned to drive – as well as contributing to a similar session on the future potential for geological hydrogen storage in Europe.

If anyone is interested in contributing to this endeavour, do get in touch!

Nordic Geoscience Meeting 2022 Reykjavik, Iceland – May

A much delayed biannual conference that should have been in winter, but thankfully displaced to May allowing field trips and greater attendance and featured all aspects of research and industrial use of geoscience across Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland.

As for the buzz in the corridors, much excitement about Carbfix’s ability to sequester CO2 into a widening range of basalts, lots of papers on the increasing threats to coasts and infrastructure from climate change in the North Atlantic and, yes, the critical mineral potential of the region but the social/permitting issues these projects face…..

I gave talks introducing EFG as an organisation, our suite of geothermal projects and some new thinking on how we can use geotourism as tool for good…..

H-NAT Summit Online – June

This was the second run of a new annual event (meant to be in-person, but online this year) dedicated to geological hydrogen that follows on from our involvement with the community looking at the now growing area of underground storage of H2 with the new realisation that at a cost of ~$1/tonne (versus perhaps $5 for blue H2 or $11 for electrolyser H2) geological production might be a total game-changer for the “hydrogen economy” that is seen to become a major part of the energy transition in the coming decade or two, if we can prove up the reserves.

A real opportunity to address the current challenges (resource estimation, permitting, investor awareness) but also to see the wealth of new interest and hear from those already exploring.

Chatham House ‘Governance, Institutions and Security’ seminar London, UK – June

Other participants were prominent actors on these topics from government, defence, agriculture, finance, civil society, industry and research. This event operated under Chatham House Rules, however we will be able to share plenty of their analysis going forward. Get in touch if you want to know more.

MINEX 2022 Tirana, Albania – July

A last-minute offer to present the ROBOMINERS project at the MINEX 2022 conference in Albania, also gave a chance to connect with a region of Europe with great aspirations for becoming closer to European organisations and with great potential for geology to play a role in economic development and institution-building.

Had chance to connect with local developers and local association representatives. Were more upbeat about the viability of social acceptance compared to many areas of Europe and the criticality of getting things right from the start in terms of sustainability. Surprised at amount of cross-border co-operation taking place and certainly an area to watch and connect increasingly with for EFG.

Much curiosity and discussion afterwards about the case for robotic mining and its practical challenges. This is a topic which captures the imagination – a useful thing to know!

In coming weeks, we’ll share with you what I and rest of the team have been doing in Brussels.

This is an experimental format, so do please let know what you find most useful and suggestion for how we package the information.

Do also continue to check out our social media pages on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for individual posts from myself and others on our activities as they occur.

All the best,

Glen Burridge