Emissions need to be reduced urgently and energy output needs to be increased. Trillions of dollars have been invested in coal power equipment. Millions of people are working in the coal industry, who can be retrained for clean power jobs. We are running out of our carbon budget, and the climate crisis is intensifying.

So how do we address this opportunity?

Repowering - reutilising existing fossil fuel infrastructure and upgrading coal units with new and clean, low-carbon tech - is one of the ways forward. We believe it is vital for the survival of our future generations.

At the Repower World Summit 2025 in Katowice, Poland, we teamed up with the inestimably talented filmmaker Joris Skudra to work on a short film to introduce Repowering to the world – produced in a style that entertains, educates, and inspires.

We think he has nailed it.

Over three days, we interviewed an international consortium of financiers, policy makers, diplomats, transition experts, technology developers, academics, researchers, campaigners and members of the Repower Initiative team to answer a key question:

‘Why do we need to Repower?’

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We learned so many things. Countries around the world are contending with how to solve the urgent need for decarbonisation of coal power. Each have different complications, all can be improved when Repowering is promoted as a pathway by their governments, alongside the development of other renewable options.

• Indonesia, for example, is on an archipelago of thousands of small islands – there is no one continuous grid, so replacing energy with new renewables is an extreme challenge
• In South Korea, trying to build new electrical transmission lines for renewable sources is very impractical as the country is congested and the land space is not readily available. To supply the same amount of energy with existing renewable energy sources would mean perhaps tripling the capacity of the existing electrical transmission lines
• Poland has been heavily reliant on coal for decades. Switching off existing coal-fired power plants means shutting down economic regions, and people needing to relocate to find other employment. This is disruptive and impacts highly-skilled local workers.

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Time and again, experts in many different fields of pursuit agree that Repowering is a must do, is beneficial for countries around the globe who are seeking to decarbonise, and is one of the largest opportunities available in the energy sector today.

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We spoke with Joris Skudra, the director, camera operator, script-writer and editor of the piece, and asked him to comment on his filmmaking process for this project:

JORIS: "Since the topic touches on the whole 'going green' thing and let’s be real, we’ve all seen enough of the tired 'save the planet' visuals and corporate fake laughs, it felt like this needed a different, braver angle to actually cut through. Repower team totally got that and let me go all in.

We spent hours in interviews, encouraging everyone to drop the polished, academic tone and just be real, human, honest, imperfect.

In one scene, where I wanted to touch on the greenwashing issue and wasn’t sure it would make it through, the Repower team actually pushed me to go even harder, at a point where most organizations would’ve backed off. I think it’s important to try and be honest, and they clearly value that too.

"Spending time inside this organization, I saw how many people genuinely care and pour their heart into it. That kind of honesty is rare—and refreshing. Hope that comes through in the film. "

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We are grateful for the enthusiasm, focus and adroitness Joris brought to our project, and are excited to share his cinematic vision with the world.

The Repower movement is growing

Are you in?

Here is our film:

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Joris Skudra: Filmmaker