Full Title: Strategic Perspectives on Energy Security, Climate Change and New Technologies in Europe and the United States
Author(s): Davis Koranyi
Publisher(s): Center for Transatlantic Relations
Publication Date: January 1, 2011
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Description (excerpt):
The world of energy is in upheaval. “It is a time of unprecedented uncertainties,” as the International Energy Agency put it in its 2010 World Energy Outlook report. Economic recovery after the crisis is still fragile. The hunger for energy resources gnaws at rapidly emerging economies; energy poverty is rampant. 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity; New york City uses as much energy as 800 mil- lion people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Energy markets are in flux as producer and consumer positions shift dramatically. Even as Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer, the United States has surpassed Russia as the world’s largest producer of natural gas. global energy markets are increasingly interconnected and inter- dependent, yet global energy governance is still in its infancy. Climate change challenges loom ever larger, while a global agreement on how to tackle them seems distant. The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident has cast doubt over the future of nuclear power, and the revolutions in the Middle East, spawned by millions of people looking for dignity and a better life, have upended governments and erased complacent assumptions about energy supply and demand. With these developments in mind, CTR Fellow David Koranyi has gathered an impressive set of authors to explore how Europe and the United States can grapple with the energy questions of today and tomorrow. What drives policy decisions in Washington and in the capitals of U.S. states, or in Brussels and in European countries? What will define their energy mixes in the future? What are the similarities and differences, convergences and divergences among the various energy sectors in Europe and the United States? What should be done to facilitate transatlantic cooperation in the field of energy from a political, diplomatic, institutional, commercial, regulatory and financial perspective? Is a transatlantic energy alliance desirable? Is it possible? What could be the goals, scope, shape and influence of such an alliance? Their conclusions are well worth reading.