News

‘Energy geopolitics’ has a beleaguered history. Emerging in the wake of the 1970s oil crises as a handmaiden to Western power politics, it has traditionally fixated on the role of fossil fuels in inter-state rivalry. Today, in the context of climate change, the global energy system transformation, and ratcheting US-China competition, energy geopolitics commands our attention once again.

In this free public webinar, held on October 21 2024, we discussed how to critically rethink energy geopolitics for the present moment – its aims, methods, and themes. We asked questions such as:

• How do dispersed, global networks for the production of solar PVs, or lithium-ion batteries, condition today’s geopolitics?
• Who is energy security for, and what would it mean to look at the problem from the ‘demand side’ instead of the ‘supply side’?
• What does geopolitics help to tell us about the macroscopic nature of the global energy system’s unfolding transformation – its contingencies, dynamics, and conflicts?

Recording

Speakers

• Chair: Caroline Kuzemko, UKERC | University of Warwick
• Louis Fletcher, UKERC | University of Warwick
• Gavin Bridge, UKERC | Durham University
• Marie Claire Brisbois, Energy Demand Research Centre | University of Sussex

Presentations

• Louis Fletcher’s slides.
• Gavin Bridge’s slides.
• Marie Claire Brisbois’ slides.