Who stands for the 28th World Climate Conference? It is difficult to identify a single person in view of the tens of thousands of participants at COP28, which ended in mid-December.

As president of the event, Emirati Industry Minister Sultan al-Jaber played an impressive psychological game of yo-yo with the expectations. Hence, the results were primarily perceived as a success, particularly the commitment to triple renewable energy by 2030 and double the annual increase in energy efficiency over this period. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also took centre stage. She invested a lot of time and became the central figure at the COP in the eyes of the German public.

Yet ultimately, the people whose faces and names do not appear anywhere are decisive for the numerous debates at the conference – and, above all, the implementation of their proclamations. Among them: The energy managers. Christian Bruch (53), CEO of Siemens Energy, is a prime example of this group of people.

Why? Alongside investors, energy managers have to ensure that the world really does move in the direction politicians want. Siemens Energy sees itself as predestined for this because the German company supplies many pieces of the puzzle for energy generation: From gas turbines to wind turbines and power lines.

It is, therefore, no coincidence that Bruch's Supervisory Board Chairman Joe Kaeser (66) has been appointed to the 32-member COP28 advisory committee – alongside Blackrock CEO Larry Fink (71), for instance. Above all, the climate conference in Dubai brought an innovation that placed energy managers more in the foreground than before: For the first time, the industries and their CEOs were present on a vast scale. A Davos feeling in the desert.

Siemens Energy was well prepared for this: The company only moved into its new offices in the United Arab Emirates in August, right in the centre of the conference area's so-called "green zone", which is open to the public. This created a natural meeting place. For four days, Bruch, who holds a doctorate in engineering, was available to liaise with politicians and customers while performing his other CEO duties on-site.

For Bruch, who has been at the helm of Siemens Energy since May 2020, the COP marked the end of a remarkable year. Since the middle of the year, the company has been perceived less as a problem solver, but rather as a problem itself. No one reflects this as relentlessly as the capital market: A profit warning from the Siemens Gamesa division and calls for government guarantees caused the share price to plummet from a reasonable 23 euros to just under 7 euros at the end of October. Siemens Energy became the topic of prime time news.

In the face of adversity, when holidays and weekends are cancelled, when the motivation of one's own managers wanes, some managers have been known to reach their limits. However, when Bruch publicly presented the balance sheet in the midst of the turbulence in November, the former Linde manager showed that he was cut from a different cloth: full of energy, precise and approachable, he promoted the company's cause – and emphasised that the guarantees had nothing to do with state aid or even subsidies. 

What remains? The share price has now at least risen again to a reasonable 11 euros. What is more critical in the long-term, however, is what Bruch said a few months ago with regard to COP28 and a drastic increase in renewable energy capacity: "Such increases can only be achieved if the framework conditions are right, regulatory hurdles are removed and, above all, access to enormous quantities of materials is guaranteed."