CurrentResearch:Geopolitics,EnergySecurity&ResilienceofNetZero

COP29 is the latest moment in the growing global movement to reduce emissions and transition energy systems away from fossil fuels, as national and local governments and businesses face increasing pressure to enable a just and sustainable energy future. Leaders in industry and government are assessing the opportunities of green industrial strategy, but also need to consider how to manage the risks of transitioning away from fossil fuel production, especially given decommissioning costs and the potential for assets in this sector to lose value as we shift away from their use.

At the same time, as global energy systems transition, materials, manufacturing processes, and infrastructures are changing and reshaping the world’s energy landscape. Perceptions of a new “energy geopolitics” place emphasis on national industrial strategies, securing manufacturing and resource supply chains, and considerations of energy independence, as countries aim to avoid risks and reduce dependency on foreign resources. It is crucial to better understand these complex energy system, market, and supply chain shifts, new political strategies and conflicts, and their implications for how we define and understand UK energy security and its relationship to net zero.

Beyond external factors that influence low emissions transitions and fossil fuel phase out efforts, the UK must address its own ambitious targets: 2030 clean electricity; the current, legally binding carbon budget; and net zero 2050. This project will also pose and address critical political economy questions of how to get back on track towards meeting these targets whilst maintaining secure and affordable energy and enhancing political support.

This theme adopts an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to energy geopolitics – a geopolitical economy of energy – developed in UKERC4. This brings together economic geography, critical international political economy, and public policy research to conceptualise and analyse the geopolitics of energy system transformation and the political economy of UK net zero.

The programme will collaborate closely all other UKERC themes and well as with organisations like Chatham House, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the British Geological Survey, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.