Full Title: 2015 Global Energy Forum: Revolutionary Changes and Security Pathways
Author(s): Jan H. Kalicki (editor)
Publisher(s): Wilson Center
Publication Date: November 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Revolutionary changes are occurring in the global energy landscape, as a wider number of producers and types of energy come into the world market. Most notably, the United States is becoming the world’s largest energy producer; technology is multiplying the output of shale oil and natural gas; renewable energy and nuclear power are the fastest growing sources even if fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy mix.
At the same time, the carbon content of the earth’s atmosphere continues to build, and more and more countries recognize the need for urgent action to contain climate change. Prospects for an adequate global response, at the UN climate change conference in Paris (COP-21) and elsewhere, are still insuffi cient, and more concerted – indeed, revolutionary – action will be required in both technology and politics.
To better assess both the realities and the action agendas, the Woodrow Wilson Center convened on September 21, 2015 a Global Energy Forum on Revolutionary Changes and Security Pathways. Adam Sieminski, Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, made keynote remarks on Global Energy Markets, followed by Robert Johnston, CEO and Natural Resources Head of Eurasia Group, who spoke to the Geopolitics of the New Oil Environment.
Amy Jaff e, Executive Director of Energy and Sustainability at University of California Davis, then probed further into the geopolitical equation by addressing regional turbulence and realignment, with reference to Middle East confl icts and the new geopolitics of oil.
Complementing the geopolitical perspective was the climate change agenda. David Victor, Professor of International Relations at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California San Diego, addressed the need for a revolutionary energy system to help meet that agenda.