Full Title: The 2022 Global Energy Agenda
Author(s): Randolph Bell, Jennifer T. Gordon, Ameya Hadap, Paul Kielstra
Publisher(s): Atlantic Council
Publication Date: January 19, 2022
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The year 2021 began with high hopes for climate action, as many members of the international community—including, once again, the US—rededicated themselves to the effort and looked to deploy resources accordingly. And there were certainly landmark achievements: the Global Methane Pledge was launched, the Paris Agreement rulebook was completed, and the private holders of $130 trillion in assets under management pledged their collective financial muscle to the fight against climate change, among other victories. But as global economic demand roared back from its pandemic-dampened level in 2020, energy supply failed to keep up, inflating hydrocarbon prices, driving countries back to dirty coal generation, and underscoring the challenges of the “transition” part of the energy transition. It became clear that countries will need to thread the needle between pushing for ambitious emissions reductions and keeping prices down and the lights on in the interim, all against an ever more precarious geopolitical backdrop.
With these considerations in mind, The 2022 Global Energy Agenda details a more pessimistic outlook on the promise of the energy transition, as respondents reckoned with concerns old and new. In these pages, experts offer ways forward in the face of hazards like Russian aggression, supply-demand mismatch, and a transition that threatens to leave the global poor behind. Though the pitfalls that emerged in 2021 gave many pause, this report reveals that leaders are no less determined to find solutions, and to chart a more stable and inclusive course in 2022.