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When I first visited Belém as a young man, I was struck by the energy of its people and by the spirit of possibility. As delegates this week have begun gathering there for COP30 – the UN’s Climate Implementation Summit – we’ve found a city that reflects both the promise and pressures of the global energy transition.

Two years of drought have impacted the hydroelectric power on which much of Brazil depends. Belém therefore is a community alive to the fact that resilient electricity networks underpin every modern system – from schools and hospitals to water and communications.

Admittedly, power grids remain national prerogatives rather than subjects of international negotiations. But in both hemispheres, grids are the critical enablers both of decarbonisation and of economic development.

For COP30 to deliver on its implementation ambitions and keep diplomatic gridlock at bay, we must strengthen the systems and networks that make delivery possible – starting with power. From Belém to Bangalore, Beijing to Birmingham, we cannot decarbonise what we cannot connect.

This summit in Belém, which brings together representatives of most countries and of the energy and infrastructure sectors, is a rare opportunity to collaborate and ensure the grid’s role is properly highlighted.

Brazil is well-placed to convene that conversation. As the world’s sixth-largest electricity market, it generates more than 90 percent of its power from low-carbon sources. The country’s leaders keenly understand the need for a reliable grid to deliver this energy to industry and households.

Internationally, recognition of the grid’s dual role enabling environmental and economic progress has been growing for some time. The Global Grids and Storage Pledge at COP29, and groups like Utilities for Net Zero and the NextGrid Alliance (which National Grid convenes), have built awareness and a sense of urgency.

Yet too often, climate and energy discussions give more airtime to what new generation or load we must build – renewables, nuclear, EVs, data centres – than to how we connect them. In many regions, the infrastructure that links economies to the energy they need is still taken for granted.

The grid – physical and digital – is the backbone of every credible implementation plan and the foundation of competitiveness. Without modern, flexible, and resilient networks, climate ambition gets stranded, and growth slows.  This is the message National Grid will take to the conference.

The Missing Link in the Climate Conversation

We need to view grid modernisation as investment in growth, resilience, and competitiveness. Across the world, data-driven grids are becoming the platform for future energy use – from electrified heat and transport to advanced manufacturing and AI. Modern grids are catalysts for innovation, bringing opportunity and the benefits of electrification to every community they connect.

Modern grids also reduce long-term energy costs, stabilise prices, and cut waste – critical elements in the fight for affordable, secure power. Growth, competitiveness, and sustainability aren’t in conflict; they depend on each other. The energy and utility sectors must do more to communicate these proof points widely. And we must innovate more quickly and ambitiously to keep bringing costs and emissions down.

The Opportunity Ahead: Investing for Future Energy Uses

Success in Belém will require collaboration across sectors and borders, which is vital to sustained delivery. If COP30 is to be the COP of implementation, grids must be recognised as the critical enabler underpinning many climate and energy goals.

This focus should complement, not replace, the momentum on bolstering finance, mitigating carbon and doubling efficiency by 2030. Investments in grids become multipliers – unlocking growth in every sector while powering the agenda that participants in Belém are striving for.

The Call to COP30: Turning Recognition into Delivery

Every community and business depends on resilient energy grids to grow, compete, and thrive. The governments gathering in Belém, backed by private–sector action, must now deliver the ambition the world expects.

From Belém to the World

Steve Smith is Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer of National Grid, one of the world's largest investor-owned energy utilities. This article first appeared in Utility Week.

COP 30 - Avoiding Gridlock in Belém