From $100 Oil to Extreme Heat: Can Technology Reduce Energy Vulnerability?

undefined

Record-breaking heat across Europe is placing growing pressure on critical infrastructure. At the same time, oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel this year as geopolitical tensions once again exposed vulnerabilities in global energy markets.

These are not isolated crises, but different sides of the same coin. And prompts the question, how can we build energy systems that remain reliable in an increasingly volatile world?

A new generation of technologies is beginning to change that equation. This session explores how new technologies like direct lithium extraction and everything-to-grid energy are changing how energy is produced, managed and consumed.

This is the full audio from a studio discussion recorded on 9 July, 2026.

License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.