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Students at the frontier of the energy transition
27/4/2026
8 min read
Feature
Earlier this year, hundreds of students from around the world gathered deep in the Amazon rainforest for an unusual energy event. The Student Energy Summit (SES) took place in the Brazilian city of Manaus from 18–21 February, bringing together emerging leaders, researchers and entrepreneurs to debate the future of energy. Held just months after the COP30 in nearby Belém, Brazil, the summit sought to channel the momentum of global climate diplomacy into practical action among the next generation of energy professionals, writes Charlie Bush.
The event was organised by Student Energy, a non-profit organisation that has spent more than a decade building a global network of young people working across the energy sector. Its flagship gathering, the biennial SES has previously been hosted in cities including Abu Dhabi, London and Mérida.
The Manaus event stood out for its location and its focus: connecting the energy transition to the lived experiences of communities that often remain on the margins of global policy debates.
Energy conversations in the heart of the Amazon
The road to hosting the summit in Manaus began several years earlier, when a team of Brazilian students competed against dozens of other cities to secure the event. The selection process requires applicant teams to submit detailed proposals covering logistics, themes and organisational capacity. For the Manaus team, led by SES Chair João Pedro Lauand, the winning concept centred on a simple but powerful idea: bringing global energy discussions into direct contact with the Amazon.