Where is the WEAF Annual Energy Conference held?

The conference is held in the city of Vienna, AUT.

What is the format of the WEAF Annual Energy Conference?

The conference is an in-person event, taking place in Vienna, AUT.

9th WEAF Annual Energy Conference

Name: 9th WEAF Annual Energy Conference
Start: 2026-04-14T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-04-14T00:00:00Z
Location: Vienna

Apr 14, 2026Vienna, AustriaIn-person

Registration open

The WEAF Annual Energy Conference convenes in Vienna, AUT, offering a platform for in-depth discussions on the evolving energy landscape. This event is designed to foster dialogue among stakeholders, addressing critical issues and future directions within the energy sector. Participants will engage with various perspectives on energy challenges and opportunities.

Committees & topics

Topics
European Electricity and Gas Markets · Regulatory Developments in European Energy · The Energy Transition · Global Energy Supply Challenges · Security of Energy Supply Across Europe

Why it matters

The annual gathering in Vienna, AUT, is significant because it brings together key players to deliberate on the complex and interconnected issues shaping global energy. The discussions here can influence policy considerations and strategic planning for energy security and sustainability. Understanding the various viewpoints presented is crucial for anyone involved in energy policy, research, or industry.

Given the global nature of energy challenges, such as ensuring a stable supply while transitioning to cleaner sources, events like this conference provide a vital forum. The insights shared contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the pathways forward, including technological advancements, regulatory frameworks, and international cooperation. This collective engagement is essential for navigating the complexities of the energy transition and addressing the multifaceted demands of energy systems worldwide.

How to prepare

To maximize engagement with the conference, participants should conduct a thorough stakeholder mapping exercise, as outlined in the Model Diplomat lessons on "what-is-stakeholder-mapping" and "stakeholder-workshop." Identifying key actors and their interests will allow for more targeted networking and more effective participation in discussions. Considering the diverse range of participants, understanding different national and organizational priorities will be key to productive dialogue.

Furthermore, preparing a "dynamic-analysis" of current energy trends and potential future scenarios will enable participants to contribute meaningfully to the conversations. This includes familiarizing oneself with the concept of "energy-security" and the ongoing "energy-transition," which are likely to be central themes. By anticipating the perspectives of various "hidden-stakeholders" and developing robust "engagement-strategies," attendees can ensure their contributions are impactful and contribute to the overall success of the conference.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Austria

As the host nation, Austria plays a crucial role in facilitating dialogue on European and global energy policy.

Role in topic

AUT provides the neutral ground for this international energy conference, emphasizing its commitment to fostering discussions on energy security and sustainability within Europe and beyond. Its location in Central Europe positions it as a bridge for diverse energy perspectives.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

European Electricity and Gas Markets

European electricity and gas markets have undergone profound restructuring since the liberalization directives of the late 1990s and 2000s, which unbundled generation, transmission, and supply and created integrated cross-border trading platforms. The establishment of ENTSO-E and ENTSOG, market coupling across day-ahead and intraday timeframes, and the development of the Internal Energy Market sought to deliver competition, lower prices, and security through interconnection. Gas hubs such as the Dutch TTF emerged as the principal European price benchmarks, displacing oil-indexed long-term contracts. The 2021-2022 price shock, triggered by post-pandemic demand recovery and compounded by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the collapse of Russian pipeline gas deliveries, exposed deep structural vulnerabilities. Wholesale electricity prices, set by marginal gas plants under merit-order pricing, soared in tandem with TTF, prompting emergency interventions including price caps, windfall taxes, and demand-reduction targets. The EU's 2024 electricity market design reform sought to expand long-term contracting through PPAs and Contracts for Difference while preserving short-term market signals. Today the markets are stabilizing but remain structurally tighter: LNG has replaced much of the lost Russian volume, renewables are pushing record shares of zero-marginal-cost generation, and policymakers continue to debate how to decouple power prices from gas, manage negative-price episodes, and finance the grid investment needed for electrification.

Key players

Regulatory Developments in European Energy

European energy regulation has accelerated dramatically since the Clean Energy for All Europeans package of 2019, which set binding targets for renewables, efficiency, and consumer rights. The European Green Deal (2019), the Fit for 55 package (2021), and REPowerEU (2022) have layered new obligations on member states, transmission operators, and market participants, while ACER's role in cross-border oversight has expanded. Successive revisions of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), the Energy Efficiency Directive, and the Gas and Hydrogen Decarbonization Package have reshaped permitting, hydrogen market rules, and methane emissions standards. The 2024 electricity market design reform introduced new instruments for long-term hedging, capacity mechanisms, and consumer protection during price crises. In parallel, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its transitional phase in 2023 and will be fully operational from 2026, with significant implications for trading partners. The Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act respond to concerns about industrial competitiveness and dependency on Chinese clean-tech supply chains. National regulators face the challenge of transposing this dense EU acquis while managing politically sensitive issues such as grid tariffs, network charges for prosumers, capacity remuneration, and the phase-out of fossil subsidies. The Draghi report on European competitiveness (2024) and ongoing debates over a Clean Industrial Deal frame the next regulatory cycle.

Key players

The Energy Transition

The energy transition refers to the structural shift from fossil-fuel-based energy systems toward low-carbon sources, driven by climate commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement and reinforced at COP26 (Glasgow), COP28 (Dubai, with its landmark call to transition away from fossil fuels), and subsequent COPs. The EU's binding target of climate neutrality by 2050 and a 55% emissions cut by 2030 has anchored European policy, with renewables, electrification, hydrogen, and efficiency as the four main pillars. Progress has been uneven. Wind and solar deployment hit record levels in 2023 and 2024, with renewables overtaking fossil fuels in EU electricity generation, but grid build-out, storage, permitting bottlenecks, and rising capital costs have slowed projects. Heat and transport electrification lag power-sector decarbonization, and the hydrogen economy has scaled more slowly than 2020-era projections anticipated. Industrial competitiveness concerns, sharpened by the US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and Chinese dominance in solar, batteries, and EVs, have prompted European countermeasures including the Net-Zero Industry Act. The transition's social dimensions — affordability, just transition for coal regions, and consumer engagement — remain politically contentious, particularly amid backlash against measures such as combustion-engine phase-outs and building efficiency mandates. The pace, financing, and global equity of the transition are now central to European energy policy debates.

Key players

Global Energy Supply Challenges

Global energy supply has been reshaped by overlapping shocks since 2020: the pandemic demand collapse and rebound, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the associated rupture of European-Russian energy trade, Middle East instability including Red Sea shipping disruptions from late 2023, and the accelerating pivot of clean-tech supply chains toward Asia. Oil markets remain shaped by OPEC+ production decisions, with Saudi-Russian coordination sustaining prices despite weaker Chinese demand growth. LNG has become the swing commodity for gas, with the United States overtaking Qatar and Australia as the largest exporter and Europe absorbing a growing share of global cargoes. Critical mineral supply — lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths, and processed graphite — has emerged as a strategic vulnerability, with China holding dominant positions in processing and refining. Export controls, friend-shoring policies, and resource nationalism in producing states such as Indonesia and Chile are reshaping investment flows. Climate-driven disruptions, from droughts affecting hydropower and nuclear cooling to extreme heat stressing grids, add further uncertainty. The IEA and IRENA warn of a widening gap between investment in fossil supply and in the clean-energy infrastructure needed for net-zero pathways, while developing economies face acute financing constraints. Global supply security is increasingly intertwined with geopolitics, trade policy, and industrial strategy.

Key players

Security of Energy Supply Across Europe

Security of supply has returned to the top of the European agenda since 2022, when Russia's weaponization of gas exports — culminating in the cutoff of most pipeline flows and the September 2022 Nord Stream sabotage — forced an emergency reorientation. The EU's REPowerEU plan accelerated LNG import capacity expansion (notably FSRUs in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and the Baltics), mandated gas storage filling targets, coordinated demand reduction, and prioritized renewables build-out and efficiency. By the 2023-2024 winter, the bloc had largely replaced Russian pipeline gas with LNG and Norwegian supply, albeit at higher structural cost. Electricity security has become equally salient. The 2024-2025 period saw heightened attention to grid resilience after incidents including cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea, drone overflights near critical infrastructure, and cyberattacks on operators. Drought-induced shortfalls in French nuclear availability in 2022 and hydropower stress in southern Europe underscored physical vulnerabilities. The Iberian blackout of April 2025 reignited debates over inertia, interconnection, and balancing in high-renewables systems. Ongoing priorities include completing remaining gas and electricity interconnections (particularly for the Iberian Peninsula and Ireland), securing critical raw materials, protecting subsea cables and pipelines, expanding storage, and aligning national emergency frameworks. Tensions remain between solidarity mechanisms at EU level and national-level energy sovereignty.

Key players