What a pleasure to be back in beautiful, sunny Sofia, where we saw many familiar faces , friends and colleagues and gathered around a table to share some great local cuisine and wine .

Our panel took place on June 18, Day 3 of the GTF and was entitled , “ESG AS A GROWTH ENGINE: TURNING RESPONSIBILITY INTO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE”. Here is a link to the program of the day and the participants on our panel : https://greentransition.bg/en/gt-programa/june-18-2025/

Here is the link to the video :

Here are the Key Discussion Points:

The ‘S’ in ESG: Rethinking Social Impact Beyond Diversity Reports – employee well-being, supply chain ethics, and true social responsibility

How sustainability drives innovation, profitability, and resilience in the CEE region

Lessons from businesses that have successfully incorporated ESG strategies into their growth models

As Ellen Wasylina had just contributed to the annual publication of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Institute of Energy and Climate Diplomacy, under the Editor Slavtcho NEYKOV, here are the main points of her remarks , excerpts taken directly from her paper, entitled “ Green Diplomacy in the Black Sea Region – steps towards peace, growth and prosperity”

The EU has set its Green diplomacy as a political priority and so it should be for the Black Sea countries. It is defined as “accelerating a global just and inclusive green transition”, by the EU Consilium on March 18, 2024, which includes a multilateral approach with partner countries.

On this premise, the current analysis would explicitly deal with policy issues of countries in the Black Sea region. Thus, inter alia, as one of the largest riparian countries of the Black Sea, particular attention would be paid on how Türkiye can use Green Diplomacy as a strategic component of its soft power approach, to build bridges with its neighbors, fostering goodwill, and enhance its influence through environmental sustainability efforts. Another look would be on different Green diplomacy typologies (environmental protection, green energy, rare earth, nuclear energy and the blue economy) by zooming in on several Black Sea countries, such as Bulgaria , Romania and Ukraine – as   they all attempt to address critical global challenges and at the same time strengthen their standing and appeal on the world stage etc.

Clean or low carbon Energy is key to our political , economic and social security and stability , and is the lynchpin , la clé de voûte of Green Diplomacy , to accelerate a global just and inclusive green transition, and ensuring a reliable , clean alternative to fossil fuels.

A common effort, a multilateral approach is needed to ensure security of supply, prosperity and competitiveness. Together the Black Sea countries need to upgrade their infrastructure, modernize their electrical grids for more effective transmission, electricity interconnections and energy storage, while at the same time bring affordable energy to the market, and eliminating energy poverty .

The European Energy Union was launched in 2015 and led by Maros Šefčovič, and was the precursor of this Energy diplomacy.  It stepped into action when it synchronized the electric grids of the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) on February 9, 2025. Then they were finally disconnected from Russia’s grid and hooked up to the EU’s grid, which took 17 years to achieve.

Another area of cooperation would be developing a Black Sea gas hub, where the potential is huge, given the proven reserves in offshore fields available. Türkiye weighs in with healthy gas reserves estimated at 405 bcm ; Romania hopes to achieve 100 bcm with  its Neptun Deep ; and Bulgaria boasts 60 bcm with its Khan Asparuh. Couple that with the ICGB Interconnector, a true success story , led by Teodora Georgieva  and co-financed by the European Energy Union for Recovery program , with a natural gas connector between Bulgaria and Greece. This pipeline is 182,6 km long, and can transmit from 3 to 5 bcm per year. 

Some recent good news out of Baku in this aspect deserve to be also particularly mentioned : Turkish Minister of Energy Alparslan Bayraktar , together with Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan, Parviz Shahbazov, Minister of Energy of Bulgaria , Zhecho Stankov and Deputy Minister of Economy of Georgia Vahtang Tsintsadze, took the first step in “Green Electricity Transmission and Trade Project” by signing an MOU  . This multilateral project will enable cross-border trade of electricity generated from renewable sources, modernize transmission systems and enhance energy efficiency and supply security.

As President von der Leyen mentioned , decarbonisation is directly linked to having access to rare earth and technologies which will improve competitiveness in Europe . 

There is clearly a race to capture supply and supply chains to access rare earth minerals, which are indispensable for the next stage of the European economy, which will be highly dependent on these rare earth minerals – from chips to all modern rapid calculating or quantum computing, which is not only going to become part of the daily life, but will make the economy more competitive and more efficient . These technologies should also help people get to net zero…’

In fact, all the Black Sea riparian countries have deposits of rare earth minerals  . Russia is in the top eight countries, with its rare earth reserves estimated in 2024 to stand at 3.8 million metric tons.

Another major country on the Black Sea, Türkiye, has joined the Minerals Security Partnership, which was launched in 2024 to reduce dependency of supply on China, by a group of 14 countries – these are mineral producing countries, such as Kazakhstan, Namibia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. Türkiye recently discovered the second largest deposit of rare earth after China in 2022.

The EU recently launched a two-year-long rare earth elements project in Türkiye , worth €12 million ($13.4m) to strengthen the Turkish national rare earth minerals ecosystem – it included enhancing Munzur University’s Rare Earth Elements Application and Research Centre, and establishing a recycling facility at the General Directorate Mineral Research Exploration. Here is a link to a detailed account of the four types of deposits and mineralization in Türkiye.

A report, published in June 2022 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) just after the war broke out in Ukraine (February 2022), and entitled “Nuclear Power and secure energy transitions”, , particularly brings into focus the double challenges of decoupling from Russian  energy and the real risks of climate change, as listed in the World Economic Forum’s annual Risk Report above . 

In terms of general global trends on page 17 of this report, as of 2021, there are 52 reactors currently being built  totaling 54 GW of capacity . For our focus in the Black Sea,  Türkiye will soon have 4,4  GW and Russia 3,8 GW. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) states that in case of “nuclear fade” the clean energy transition will become more difficult and more costly, requiring $1.6 trillion of additional investment in advanced economies over the next two decades.

According to McKinsey & Company, achieving net-zero emissions globally by 2050 will require around $9.2 trillion in annual investment. A significant portion of this cost will go toward decarbonizing high-emission industries such as energy, heavy manufacturing (e.g., steel and cement), and transportation. As for the International Energy Agency (IEA), it estimates that the level of $4 trillion annually should be reached as to attain clean energy efficiency goals, focusing on electrification and carbon capture. 

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recently spoke at the European Industry Summit in Antwerpen on February 26, 2025.  In her statement several key points referring to the Clean industrial Deal were recalled, which summarize the key goals along the topic. In this frame, the EU will mobilize over €100 billion, which will support the creation of over 500,000 jobs, growing Europe’s manufacturing sector by €100 billion by 2030. The Deal focuses on six main chapters, underlining the importance of closing the innovation gap:

Affordable Energy, notably completing the internal energy market with physical interconnections;

Boosting demand for clean products, introducing sustainability , resilience in “Made in Europe”;

Financing the clean transition;

Circularity and access to materials, notably creating a EU Critical Raw Materials Center;

Acting on a global scale  to create  clean Trade and Investment Partnerships;

Skills and quality jobs.

To read this paper in its entirety, and other papers on this very strategic subject , the digital version of the publication is available here : https://www.emi-bg.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ENERGY-AND-CLIMATE-DIPLOMACY-2025.pdf