42 5.3 STRENGTHENING POLICY, INSTITUTIONS AND PUBLIC TRUST Policy frameworks can play an important role in strengthening resilience by providing the long-term certainty needed to support investment and preserve critical system capabilities. Participants emphasized the importance of considering security, competitiveness and sustainability together, and of assessing the wider resilience implications of policy decisions. This requires understanding the full system value of strategic assets before they are retired or replaced. One participant pointed to refining capacity as one example: Europe has retired approximately 2.8 million barrels per day of refining capacity over the past two decades. Recent disruptions have demonstrated that supply security depends not only on access to crude oil but also on the ability to process and distribute it. Storage, refining and other strategic capabilities may therefore need to be considered through a broader resilience lens. FROM COMPETING ENERGY SOURCES TO WHOLE-SYSTEM RESILIENCE The discussion also challenged the traditional binary between conventional and emerging energy sources. Participants argued that the more important question is whether the energy system as a whole can meet growing demand, withstand disruption and maintain reliable supply. This requires a pragmatic approach: strengthening the energy infrastructure we depend on today while investing in the technologies and capacity needed for tomorrow. ENERGY INVESTMENT CYCLES EXTEND BEYOND POLITICAL CYCLES. POLICY MUST PROVIDE THE CONFIDENCE TO INVEST. Participants emphasized that energy infrastructure requires long-term capital commitments, often extending across multiple political cycles. Policy frameworks must therefore provide the certainty needed to preserve strategic capabilities, attract investment and develop more resilient energy systems. UNATTRIBUTED QUOTE “WITHOUT PUBLIC TRUST, AI RISKS BECOMING A SOURCE OF RESISTANCE RATHER THAN PROGRESS.” Participants further noted that resilience extends beyond infrastructure to the resilience of policymaking itself. They called for stronger institutional capabilities, longer-term decision-making and greater consideration of second-order impacts across the energy system. Public trust in the development and deployment of AI also took center stage. Governments, energy companies and technology leaders were encouraged to communicate the benefits and trade-offs of AI more clearly, address concerns around jobs, affordability and security, and invest in education and workforce development. Several participants argued that AI should be deployed against clearly defined resilience challenges, with success measured through practical outcomes rather than technological ambition alone. ENERGY LITERACY AND POLICY PRAGMATISM ARE FOUNDATIONS OF RESILIENCE The Majlis also highlighted the importance of strengthening energy literacy and institutional decision-making. European participants reflected on the consequences of energy policies that did not always adequately account for the physical realities of supply, the continuing role of molecules alongside electrons, or the strategic value of existing infrastructure. Refining capacity emerged as a particularly important example. Recent disruptions demonstrated that access to crude alone is insufficient without the capacity to process, transport and deliver the products needed by industry and consumers. Participants argued for a more pragmatic approach to energy system development: sustaining and strengthening existing infrastructure while investing in the technologies and capacity needed for the future. This requires policies that value security, affordability, sustainability and resilience together, and remain sufficiently stable to support investment cycles extending well beyond political terms.