“Financial Times” interview to Fabio Fritelli (Nextchem): no single path to energy transition

The global energy transition is entering a critical juncture, defined less by a singular, coordinated global strategy and more by a fragmented landscape of localized solutions. Speaking on the sidelines of the Financial Times forum, Nextchem Managing Director Fabio Fritelli offered a pragmatic assessment of the current geopolitical and macroeconomic forces shaping the sector, challenging the prevailing narrative of a world divided strictly into opposing energy blocs.

“We are at times of uncertainty. 2025 has been the year of uncertainty – Fabio Fritelli noted – What is true is that the current situation is such that there’s no one single path to energy transition. There are many different ways. Geopolitics are having a role in this, but it’s not only geopolitics. We keep on talking about the two or three major blocks. The US on one side, China on the other, Russia out of the picture but still playing a game, Europe in between. Reality is there are many local markets, and I’m talking of markets with billions of people summed up together, who are doing their own way to energy transition”. These regions are independently driving progress through a diverse mix of biofuels, solar power and alternative renewable sources, moving past the gridlock of Western-centric debates. “We are quite confident that one way or the other we will find another common path to energy transition soon”. According to Fabio Fritelli, as we approach 2030, we should prioritize economic viability and immediate scalability over theoretical solutions, which means that the focus should shift strictly to “those technologies which can be economically deployed”. Sustainable fuels derived from agricultural or animal waste, blue economy, circular economy: these are the fields with the most concrete opportunities.