ENERGY

REPORT
Issue 7 | November 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

PAGE

PAGE

Poland
In the wake of the prosumer
revolution

Germany
How NIMBYism will almost
double the cost of Germanys
grid expansion

PAGE

PAGE

Italy
Supergiant gas field in Egypt

Netherlands
The Dutch civic energy revolution

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

Contents
Contents
Introduction

From Brussels to Paris and beyond

In the wake of the prosumer revolution in Poland

How NIMBYism will almost double the cost of Germanys

grid expansion and the ongoing communications
challenge for politicy-makers and industry.

Supergiant gas field in Egypt: how will it alter international

geopolitics? 7
Low energy prices the greatest threat to a lower carbon world? 8
The Dutch civic energy revolution

France Pushes Green Growth - and Drastic

Energy Cuts - as a Cop 21 Model

11

MSLGROUP can make the difference

12

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

Introduction

Welcome to our latest edition of On. In this edition we take a look at the
evolving European Energy landscape in the context of the forthcoming
jamboree that is COP21. With carbon reduction at the top of the agenda,
my colleagues from around Europe have looked at some of the challenges
and opportunities that we face, and some of the communications needs that
the industry has to grapple with.
What is clear from even a cursory review of this editions content, is that
there is a diverse range of issues and no consistent thread that unites
all markets. There are often some striking inconsistencies, such as the
renewable explosion in Germany which has been combined with resurgent
coal, or the UKs constant tinkering on the regulatory environment. Other
markets, such as Italy, are putting their faith in the huge new gas field
discovered by ENI off Egypt, to not only provide access to close-at-hand
supply, but also to diminish over-reliance on Russian gas.
Europes policymakers have been largely absent from the debate so far,
instead working away on a common energy policy something the Union
is crying out for. It is a shame that it wont be in place for COP21 as I am
sure that the alignment of interests that it would represent would be very
helpful in the debate.
Nonetheless, all eyes will be turned to Paris in December, to see what the
worlds leaders can do to halt the seemingly inexorable increase in carbon
emissions while meeting the need for heat, light and power from the world.
What a great Christmas present for the world if a meaningful agreement
can be reached which rewards performance and progress, while putting an
appropriate price on the polluters.

Nick Bastin
Partner, CNC, Head of MSLGROUP EMEA Energy Practice

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

From Brussels to Paris and beyond

Leonardo Sforza
MSLGROUP, Brussels
leonardo.sforza@mslgroup.com

Cutting CO2 emissions and making energy systems

more resilient are the twin goals of the EU Energy strategy outlined by the Commission earlier this year, whitch
is now in the early stages of implementation. If the ultimate goals are not new, what is new is the way EU, policy
makers are putting consumers at the center stage of their
energy strategy, backed by a much greater sense of urgency for concerted action, never before seen in energy.
External geo-political factors, but also a greater internal
consciousness, show that nobody among the EU member states will gain in the longer term by a pan-European
agenda that continues to deliver too little, too late in this
area. A thoughtful House of Lords report unambiguously
indicated in 2013 that No country is an energy island1.
There are therefore clear benefits to be derived from working within the EU on the energy challenge.
Clear focus and direction are now set around the five pillars of the EU strategy, namely supply security, energy
efficiency, emissions reduction, integrated internal energy market and innovation in low-carbon technologies.
Joint engagement may also be at reach on the way to
Paris for the UN COP 21 conference later this year. The
alignment and target being defined jointly by the EU
and its Member States towards a reinforced agreement
on climate change in Paris is a good signal. Although
the last negotiating session before Paris took place in
Bonn, in 19-23 October, the extraordinary meeting of
the Environment Council in September set out the EUs
position for the new global climate agreement. The EU
Council is pressing for a global, fair, ambitious and legally binding international treaty that will prevent global
warming from reaching dangerous levels. The increase
in the global average temperature is aimed to be kept
below 2C above the pre-industrial level. The EU Councils conclusions support a balanced Paris Agreement
including strong action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, as
well as adequate support for financing climate action.

tricity markets. The new regulation will allow cross-border cooperation between national power exchanges and
bring them together as a more integrated market where
bids and offers for services from providers can be made
across borders with greater ease.
Meanwhile, the Commission has just concluded an important stakeholder consultation on the issues that may need
to be addressed for a new European electricity market
design. These issues include: (i) improvements to market
functioning and investment signals; (ii) market integration
of renewables; (iii) linking retail and wholesale markets
(iv); reinforcing regional coordination of policy making, between system operators and infrastructure investments; (v)
the governance of the internal electricity market; and, (vi) a
European dimension to security of supply.
The Commission considers that consumers need to become just as well-informed and empowered as buyers
and sellers on wholesale markets through clearer billing
and advertising rules, trustworthy price comparison tools
and by leveraging their bargaining power through collective schemes (such as collective switching and energy
cooperatives). Consumers should also be free to generate
and consume their own energy under fair conditions in
order to save money, help the environment, and ensure
security of supply.
Finally, recognising that citizens must be at the core of the
Energy Union, the Commission has outlined its views on
how the EU could deliver a new deal for energy consumers, based on a three-pillar strategy. These are: a) helping
consumers save money and energy through better information; b) giving consumers a wider choice of action
when choosing their participation in energy markets, and
c) maintaining the highest level of consumer protection.

On the more operational front, a new initiative has been

taken recently by the European Commission with a view
to facilitate the transfer and trade of energy across national markets. The European Commission adopted new
rules governing its electricity market and enabling the
so called market coupling across Member States elecNo Country is an Energy island: Securing Investment for the EUs Future, HOUSE OF LORDS, European Union Committee, 02.05.2013

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

In the wake of the prosumer revolution in Poland

Marcin Obersztyn
Poland
marcin.obersztyn@mslgroup.com

The EU Climate & Energy Package has always been a

sensitive issue in Poland, whose energy mix is over 80%
coal and crude oil (after all, Poland has one of the biggest coal reserves in Europe). While the country might
be perceived as a climate contrarian among EU member States, such a perception is not completely justified.
Poland does not intend to fight tightening climate policy
and defend the status quo at all costs. The Government
is fully aware of the inevitable global transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of power. However, decision-makers want this transition to be gradual so it does
not jeopardise Polish energy security and the competitiveness of its economy. Moreover, there are clear signs
that better times are coming for renewable energy sources and low emission technologies in Poland.
In January 2016, the new Renewable Energy Act comes
into force, which implements the EU Renewable Energy
Directive into domestic legislation. The document is the
first act of law, that comprehensively regulates Polands
renewable energy sector. It was finally signed by the Polish President on 11 March 2015 after almost 4 years of
work and a number of published drafts. In addition to
provisions which apply to large-scale renewable power
generation technologies, such as wind, hydro, biomass
or ground mounted PV, the act also includes a so called

prosumer amendment, which grants support for renewable power generation in prosumer micro-installations. Owners of the smallest RES installations, up to
10kW, will benefit from fixed feed-in-tariffs. In turn, owners of larger photovoltaic systems from 10kW up to 40kW
will be able to resell energy at wholesale prices from the
previous quarter. Prosumer provisions also include a net
metering solution.
The Polish Ministry of Economy estimates that due to
the favorable RES law there might be 37,500 micro-installations mounted in 2016, with a cap of 200,000. RWEs
study Technology Scenarios for the Polish Energy Market through 2050 shows that in 2050 prosumers may account for up to 25 TWh of electricity production, which is
nearly half of the electricity produced by dispersed generation.
According to the data collected by the Energy Regulatory
Office, in the first half of 2015 prosumer micro-installations of up to 40 kW produced nearly 10,600 MWh of
electricity, which is almost nine times more than in all
of 2014. This resulted from a significant increase in the
number of mounted micro-installations in the first half
of 2015. At the end of June, there were 1,954 of them
compared with 875 at the end of 2014 and 41 at the end
of 2013.
Although there are not even 2,000 prosumers yet in the
Polish energy sector, there is a strong reason to believe
that the market will grow in the next few years. Big Polish
energy companies co-owned by the State treasury, which
were once reluctant towards micro generation no longer
deny it and now include photovoltaic products in their
commercial offers directed at big companies, SMEs, local
governments and, more often, households.

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

How NIMBYism will almost double the cost of Germanys grid expansion and the ongoing communications challenge for policymakers and industry.
Florian Wastl
Germany
florian.wastl@mslgroup.com

Not long ago, energy supply in Germany was a comparatively straightforward affair. Electricity was predominantly
generated where it was consumed. This led to numerous
coal-fired power plants being erected around the Ruhr,
and nuclear power plants being constructed in the south
to supply the major population centres there. In an effort
to combat climate change, and following the Fukushima
nuclear disaster, Germany embarked on a major energy reform. As a result, the share of CO2 -emitting power
plants in electricity generation is to be slashed, and all
nuclear power stations will be shut down by 2022.

New grids seen as crucial for switch to

renewables
The shutting-down of nuclear and coal-fired plants will
lead to a shortage of energy sources in close proximity to
the major consumption centres in the south and west of
the country. This shortfall is supposed to be compensated
for with renewable energy sources from the north of Germany, such as wind (especially offshore), solar power and
biomass. In order to collect all this renewable energy and
transport it south and west, an unprecedented expansion
of Germanys grid capacity is underway. But much more is
needed, and popular resistance is on the rise.

Public resistance delays expansion and

creates uncertainty for industry
The planned construction of several major energy motorways running from the north to the south has turned
into a major communications challenge, affecting local
communities, regional and national politics, industry,

and the country as a whole. Since the Federal Network

Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) presented its grid expansion plan, protest groups have been springing up all
across the country. Residents worry that transmission
lines will destroy the countryside, devalue property and
bring unknown health risks. The situation escalated
when the Prime Minister of the south-eastern state of Bavaria snapped. Horst Seehofer, who is also the leader of
the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party of Angela
Merkels CDU, bowed to public concern and revoked his
support for the grid expansion plans which had previously been agreed upon by all 16 federal states. The resistance is developing into a major headache for Chancellor
Merkel. It is dividing her coalition, undermining her most
ambitious domestic policy and creating considerable uncertainty for grid operators, their suppliers and a whole
industry sector.

A new compromise, a huge bill, and an

unresolved dilemma
In July, a new compromise was hammered out by coalition leaders. Grid expansion is to continue more or less
as planned (with a few minor route changes) but underground cables will be given priority over transmission
lines on new routes. At first glance, it may seem like a
reasonable compromise. But it could turn out to be little
more than a very expensive short-term fix. While underground cables might indeed be the better alternative in
the long run, their deployment will be four to ten times
more expensive than fitting above-ground transmission
lines. Moreover, the compromise merely shifts problems
to other places and on to other issues, rather than resolving them. Protests will continue in the affected areas, new
ones are likely to spring up in the areas newly affected,
underground cables may not be the silver bullet in terms
of potential health risks, and the uncertainty for grid operators and affiliated industries remains. Politicians and
industry continue to face an unresolved communications
challenge which could lead to still more delays and drive
up costs even further.

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

Supergiant gas field in Egypt: how will it alter

international geopolitics?
The Italian oil company ENI has discovered the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, and confirms its strategic importance for international politics.
The opportunity for Italy is no less significant. Up until
now, it has been tied to energy supplies from Russia
and North Africa, both hampered by the civil wars in the
Ukraine and Libya, but now it will gain its own independent, viable alternative.

Alessandro Chiarmasso,
Massimo Brugnone
Italy
alessandro.chiarmasso@mslgroup.com,
massimo.brugnone@mslgroup.com

30 August 2015, Sunday, the stock exchanges are closed.

ENI, the number one Italian oil company and one of the
major international ones, issues a statement destined to
make history: the largest underwater gas field in the Mediterranean has been discovered off Egypt. With a volume of
850 billion cubic metres and an area of about 100 square
kilometres, the discovery of gas in the Zohr exploratory
area is set to become one of the largest in the world. Drilled
to a depth of 4,131 metres, a column of about 630 metres
of hydrocarbons was found in the Zohr field.
First the wires, then the internet and finally TV and the
press. On 30 August, the importance of ENI is equivalent to that of a state, and forces all the national and international media to focus attention on it. A great event
that merges national and corporate interests. A company
made up of 25,000 employees at home and 85,000 around
the world, but - especially on 30 August a company that
plays a key role potentially capable of shifting European
balance and moving the geopolitical weight of at least
two nations: Italy and Egypt.
Lets start with Egypt. When production gets underway,
the African state will not only become independent in
terms of energy supply, but will also be able to release
additional gas for export to other countries. Spin-off activities, trade and more. Egypt will become the point of
reference for transforming an area afflicted by continuous
tragedies into a new engine for collective development.

In this context of euphoria, a private company takes on

a leading role for institutional and political communication. The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, was one of
the first to praise the work done by Eni: Congratulations
on the extraordinary result of a research project that contributes to the economic and strategic relations between
Italy, Egypt and the entire African continent.
So how will this alter Italys geopolitical weight and what
future developments can we expect? Will Italy and Europe finally be able to free themselves from supplies from
Russia? Some experts are already talking about the possible construction of a network of underwater gas pipelines connecting the gas fields in the Mediterranean not
only with Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, but also with Greece
and, through Italy, with the whole of Europe. A second
hypothesis, on the other hand, could involve piping the
gas from the eastern Mediterranean to ENI facilities in
Egypt, and liquefying the natural gas there, to then transport it by ship to Italy.
According to ENIs latest updates, under the field that
has been discovered, it seems that there might even be
another.
What will be the end result? Only time and the specific exploitation plans will tell, but one thing has already sparked
our interest: ENIs communication path will be accompanied and supported by political institutions, and national
and private interests will continue going hand-in-hand with
a common objective on the international political scene.

GAS PIPELINE TAP

The network of the future

The undersea gas pipeline
that could connect gas fields
of the eastern Mediterranean
with the Tap and Italy
DATA IN BILLIONS OF CUBIC METERS

Italian con70 sumption

(per year)

Cypriot

1,700 fields

850
Field Zhor just
discovered in
Egypt by Eni

762

Israeli
fields

2,100
Others Egyptian fields

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

Low energy prices the greatest threat to a lower

carbon world?
Nick Bastin
UK
nick.bastin@cnc-communications.com

Ahead of this years United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, where world leaders will gather
to debate how to balance the worlds energy needs with
controlling carbon emissions to slow global warming, the
elephant in the room is the dramatic decline in energy
prices and the effect that is having on global energy demand. It is not just the oil price which is affecting the
market, but coal is now so cheap that it has had profound
impact on the European energy mix, making gas, which
should be an attractive bridge to a low carbon future, unattractive.
While the precipitous decline in global oil prices has
been a boon for many consumers, who have suffered
under high prices of previous years, it has also relieved
the pressure on politicians to keep up the pace of change.
This is particularly evident in the UK, where the newly
elected Conservative Government has largely unwound
the subsidies it was paying to support new renewable
energy projects. Presumably, the intention was to lower
energy prices for consumers by getting rid of all the
green crap, as David Cameron so eloquently put it. But
the irony is that due to the slow pace of legislation, and
the intervening election, it is only now that this is being
implemented, against a backdrop of already much lower

global energy prices. It therefore seems disingenuous,

when energy prices are relatively low and falling, and
consumers disposable incomes are rising, to be taking
this step.
The feeling seems to be that renewables are just too financially attractive and no longer require subsidy. However,
in the context of global climate change, questions over
energy security, and the laughable attempts to modernise the British nuclear fleet, now surely is not the time
to be pulling back from a more diversified and distributed energy mix? It also sends a very confused message
to the general public, and, with the backdrop of COP21,
does not position the UK favourably relative to peers.
In fact, the UK has recently fallen out of the top ten of
EYs renewable energy country attractiveness index for
the first time in its 12 year history, sending a pretty uninspiring message to the world.
While the German Energiewende may be too radical, and
expensive, (a step for the UK to take), at the same time
there has never been a greater need for consistency and
continuity in the Governments approach. Now that the
election is out of the way and the Conservatives in power
for the next 5 years, surely this is the time for the government to be showing leadership in trying to address some
of these challenges head on.
While no-one would advocate throwing money away unnecessarily through overly generous subsidy schemes,
the UK does need to maintain an attractive mechanism
for modernising power production in the context of delivering a lower carbon world. New nuclear is proving
almost impossible to deliver and so the burden will fall
on renewables and shale to fill the gap that coal will leave
behind.

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

The Dutch civic energy revolution

How grassroots activism changed the public paradigm on energy and forced
significant policy changes

Erik Martens
Netherlands

erik.martens@msl.nl

Timen van Haaster

Netherlands

timen.van.haaster@msl.nl

The Netherlands has experienced somewhat of an odd

path towards a sustainable energy transition. Where
Germany had its Energiewende and Sweden also went
through a sustainable energy revolution, the Dutch
market can be characterised more by evolution than by
revolution. This has to do with the Dutch way of doing
politics, which by tradition is strongly focused towards
consensus. The most prominent example when it comes
to energy: the Energy Accord, which has no less than 200
strongly diverging signatory parties and which, unsurprisingly, self-destructed shortly after its entry into force
due to the lack of choices being made and subsequent
struggles between the stakeholders involved. This shaky
and unstable agreement is a strong reflection of the current situation in the Netherlands, and Dutch politics. Alliances and coalitions are shifting, requiring makeshift
solutions and deals with a large number and range of
actors involved. And thenthe crowd stepped in.

ration and extraction for the coming five years after active
campaigning against it by municipalities, NGOs and citizen platforms. This also forced the Dutch government
to fundamentally reconsider its stance on shale and its
energy policy at large.
The most ground-breaking development, however, has
to do with the exploitation of the enormous Slochteren
gas field, located in the Northern Netherlands and long
considered vital to the Dutch economy and energy mix.
Drilling has been significantly decreased after grassroots
activism during the past year. And it did not stop there:
over the past few years, small earthquakes have occurred
in the Northern Netherlands as a result of drilling by a
company named NAM, which is a Shell-ExxonMobil
consortium. Many homes in the affected area are (slightly) damaged, contributing to the public outrage among
citizens, housing associations and NGOs. In total, 12 of
these housing associations and 900 individuals collaborated in a joint action platform which filed a claim in the
hundreds of millions of euros against NAM to compensate for the decreased value of their homes. This summer, after a three-year battle, legal authorities judged that
an estimated 100,000 homes have decreased about a billion euros in worth altogether. By judicial ruling, NAM
must directly pay for any decline in the value of homes in
the affected earthquake zone.

Power to the People, the term mostly used for the 60s of
the past century and not very common in the Netherlands, seems to have re-emerged in full force in this country. Citizens are more and more committed to exert direct
influence on civic society, NGOs, politicians and media
through a range of social & digital channels that are available to them. The establishment still seems unable to
cope with this development. They were reactive already,
but this now comes under even greater scrutiny. It might
seem easy or clich to credit social & digital media as
the main reason, but we have seen some recent, striking
examples in the Netherlands.
Take the pending lawsuit by green platform Urgenda
versus the Dutch State regarding the lack of progress on
Dutch CO2 emissions reduction policy. They won, with
the court judging that the Dutch State needs to make
amends in order to fulfill its promises. At this moment,
an appeal by the Dutch government is taking place. The
same goes for the Dutch moratorium on shale gas explo-

Occupied! Claimed by and for the Groningers (local

population).

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

Considering all these examples, we can confidently state

that agenda-setting by ordinary people, green collectives
& platforms, NGOs and green academics has become an
integral part of Dutch decision making when it comes
to energy policy. This also has to do with the inability
and reactivity of the traditional actors in this sector such
as politicians, the government and companies when it
comes to communication and stakeholder engagement.
For too long they assumed they could tackle any issue
with traditional communication and public engagement
(Well tell you whats right and whats not), but this
approach has now clearly backfired because civic stakeholders increasingly felt ignored or marginalized.
On the other hand, the rise of civic activism might actually be a quite necessary development: when we take a
look at Dutch progress in the energy transition, we can
characterize it as a European laggard. The share of renewable energy in the total mix is on average 15% in the
European Union, however it is only 5% in the Netherlands. There is an obvious reason for this lag. The Netherlands has long relied on and has been dependent onits

10

gas reserves, whereas many other European countries

had a clear urgency to diversify their energy mix. Activism has brought an end to the status quo and heralds a
new reality in which the traditional actors have to take
into account the new civic stakeholders.
These developments in the Netherlands more or less
reflect on a small scale the ones that are also relevant
for the upcoming COP 21 climate conference in Paris
later this year. Citizens and civic society are not satisfied with vague promises by governments, and expect
more of companies as well. In the Netherlands, there is
the example Urgenda again which calls upon everyone to
join their chairwoman Minnesmas march to Paris, The
Climate Miles, in the run-up to the climate conference.
This pressure from below, the grassroots activism, puts
additional pressure on the participating parties (esp. from
the Western world) to speak out and commit themselves
wholeheartedly to a sustainable energy transition. In
such a way, even the consensus model in the Netherlands is wavering.

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

France Pushes Green Growth - and Drastic

Energy Cuts - as a Cop 21 Model
A decrease of 30 per cent of fossil fuels use by 2050;
Seth Goldschlager
France
seth.goldschlager@mslgroup.com

A reduction of nuclear energy to 50 per cent of

Frances power needs by 2025, compared to 75 per
cent today.
Those objectives are said to be reachable because of the
Green Growth stimulus also present in the law.

Seth Goldschlager is a director of Publicis Consultants, the

agency appointed by the French government to support
COP-21 communications.
On a hot day in July, the French parliament approved
a Green Growth energy transition law that the government will propose as a model to the 190 nations coming
to Paris in the cold days in December when the country
hosts COP-21.
It wants to prod the laggards and the non-committed to
stop the acceleration in global warming caused by burning fossil fuels in order to avoid passing the point where
global warming becomes impossible to stop, with catastrophic impact on the planet.
That point is said to be two degrees C above pre-industrial levels, while the current predictions indicate that the
rise could go as high as five degrees C.
The French energy transition law includes no less than a
quadrupling of tax on carbon-based fuels between 2016
and 2030; the government says that it will avoid a potentially damaging hit on economic actors by reducing other
taxes.
The other related carbon energy reduction objectives are
just as impressive:
A 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by
2030, compared to the level of 1990, and reducing
them to a fourth by 2050;
A 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption by
2050, with an intermediary objective of a 20 per cent
reduction by 2030;

11

Some of that growth including an objective of creating

100,000 new jobs is said to be possible through the encouragement of renewable energy. The aim is for renewable energy to account for just under a third of French
energy consumption by 2050.
Other Green Growth provisions include incentives for
investment in energy efficient and less-polluting homes
and automobiles, an energy subsidy for low-income
households, and the installation of energy consumption
meters in homes by 2025.
The law is also environment-friendly in other ways, including a phase-out of single-use plastic bags.
Will Paris succeed in obtaining similar ambitious and
firm constraints on major polluting countries where other
Kyoto-round follow-up meetings have failed?
The biggest polluters have made some commitments. In
fact, Frances promise to cut carbon emissions by 40per
cent compared to 1990 levels by 2030 is also an engagement announced by the EU. The US will cut its emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent, compared to 2005
levels, by 2025. China says it will pledge to cap its emissions by 2030.
However, there are major countries that have missed
March deadlines to come up with targets. India is one
of them. And a real problem continues to be developing
countries demands for industrial countries to help finance their energy and economic transition.
The pressure will be on for a successful end-year conclave as current commitments on greenhouse gas emissions run out in 2020. So what happens in Paris will be
important for the next decade which could very well determine if planet Earth has the intelligent life it claims.

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

OUR TEAM
Anders Kempe
Regional president MSLGROUP EMEA
anders.kempe@mslgroup.com

Nick Bastin

MSLGROUP can make the difference

Head of Energy
MSLGROUP EMEA
nick.bastin@cnc-communications.com

Per Ola Bosson

Sweden
per.ola.bosson@jklgroup.com

Alessandro Chiarmasso
Italy
alessandro.chiarmasso@
personer
mslgroup.com

Liam Clark
UK
liam.clark@cnc-communications.com

Seth Goldschlager
France
seth.goldschlager@
consultants.publicis.fr

Otto Fricke
Germany
otto.fricke@ cnc-communications.com

Peter Steere
Belgium/ Sweden

MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupes strategic communications and engagement group, advisors in all aspects of communication strategy: from consumer PR to financial communications, from public affairs to reputation
management and from crisis communications to experiential marketing and
events. With more than 3,500 people across close to 100 offices worldwide,
MSLGROUP is also the largest PR network in Europe, fast-growing China
and India. The group offers strategic planning and counsel, insight-guided
thinking and big, compelling ideas followed by thorough execution.
MSLGROUPs EMEA Energy Practice is a leader in advising companies
from Europe and around the world on communications issues in the energy
sector. Across 15 countries and 27 offices, our European network supports
clients that range from large publicly listed Fortune 500 organisations, to
small, privately held companies. We currently advise a third of the energy
companies in the Eurotop 100.
From attracting the best talent, to communications with investors; from crisis preparedness, to corporate reputation management; and from nuclear
to renewables: we understand the key communications issues that keep
energy companies awake at night.
With both breadth and depth of energy communications expertise across
Europes key markets, we know that effective, best practice communications
can deliver value to stakeholders across the energy value chain.
In January 2015, Capital MSL merged with CNC, our sister company within
MSLGROUP. CNC is one of the largest strategic financial communications
agencies in Europe and this merger brings significantly enhanced scale and
reach, with 150 specialist colleagues in 11 offices in 8 countries, all under
the umbrella of MSLGROUP.

peter.steere@jklgroup.com

Have a look at our new website to find out more - www.cnc-communications.com.

Marcin Obersztyn

If you want to find out more about the work we do, or enquire as to how we
might be able to help, dont hesitate to contact our team member in your market or contact Nick Bastin at nick.bastin@cnc-communications.com.

Poland
marcin.obersztyn@mslgroup.
com

Erik Martens
Netherlands
erik.martens@msl.nl

Leonardo Sforza
Brussels
leonardo.sforza@
mslgroup.com

Florian Wastl
Germany
florian.wastl@mslgroup.com

12

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015

ENERGY
NEWSLETTER
www.mslgroup.com

To find out more about

MSLGROUPs services,
please contact
Nick Bastin
+44 (0) 20 3219 8814
nick.bastin@cnc-communications.com

13

ENERGY REPORT
November 2015