Europe in the new energy world order

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I went to one of the public lectures at the LSE the other day. The lecture was part of the LSE European Institute and APCO Worldwide Perspectives on Europe Series and was given by Lykke Friis, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy and Minister for Gender Equality. Ms Friis, a charismatic and young minister delivered a speech about the emergence of energy politics from low to high European politics and Europe's chances to prosper in this new energy world.

The cold war era was characterised by a bipolarity based on ideologies and nuclear arms. The post cold war era will increasingly be defined by energy. Power and economic welfare will depend on a country's or region's access to the world's decreasing fossil fuels or the development of renewable energy. In this new ‘energy world order’, Europe is split between ‘fast movers’, countries like the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Denmark and UK which are at the forefront of the  climate change agenda, and ‘slow movers’, countries from the Eastern and Central Europe which are more interested in the energy security agenda.

Ms Friis thought that the political discourse should focus on energy security rather the climate change mitigation as the new common European goal, and Europe should limit its over-reliance on coal and oil and aim to become fossil fuel independent by 2050. She thought that a potential policy response at European level could be a combination of working together towards a global deal of putting a price on carbon and ‘green’ technology such as, for example, the Super Grid System (a common European energy infrastructure) which would push down prices on renewable energy and make it available across more countries and various climates.

Catalina Turcu, UCL