Rethinking Energy Security...!!

Shifts in supply and demand, as well as challenges posed by climate change, will exert ever greater pressure on both corporate and national energy planning over the next decades.

What is needed to tackle the interlinked issues of energy security, economic growth and climate change?

Key Points
• Energy security is a question of affordability, acceptability and accessibility
• Energy security needs to be linked to climate change as well as water and food security
• Natural gas can serve as a bridge fuel from a high-carbon world to one based on renewables
• Alternative fuels and advanced car technologies that rely on electricity and hybrids can help reduce oil demand and ease market volatility

Synopsis
Rethinking energy security is a complicated business that needs to harmonize and optimize the linkages between economic growth and climate. Energy security is a function of diverse suppliers, types of fuels and modes of transportation. With greater diversification comes a greater chance to ensure energy security. Cooperation and governance are important elements in finding solutions to energy security problems.

At a consumption rate of about 86 million barrels a day, oil is responsible for 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions. The transportation sector, in particular, needs to reduce its reliance on oil. To reduce demand, there needs to be a bigger push towards alternative fuels and advanced car technologies, including electric and hybrid. The transformational development of natural gas production in many countries can serve as a bridge fuel from a high-carbon world to one based on renewables.

A large part of US President Barack Obama’s US$ 80 billion economic recovery plan is being spent on developing alternative and renewable energy. China is also putting a lot of resources into similar kinds of technologies. This is not a zero sum game; more countries should strive to include such investments in their energy plans.

Energy security is a question of affordability, acceptability and accessibility, and has to be taken in a national as well as an international context. There is a huge gap between developing and developed countries, with some 1.5 billion people lacking access to basic energy resources, especially in India and sub-Saharan Africa. And, with energy requirements set to increase, especially in developing countries, it will be increasingly important to share technologies and expand global partnerships. Universal access to energy to sustain a nation’s aspirations has to be addressed.

Currently, the global economy is not sustainable; it will take nothing less than a rebuild of the entire system to ensure sustainability. This will require massive investments from private capital funds. If policy-makers get the equation right, these investments will be forthcoming. Unfortunately, the conditions were not set at the climate change conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

Energy security needs to be linked to climate change. While the Copenhagen meeting did not produce a new deal, many countries did commit to emission reduction targets, indicating that it is possible to follow a low-carbon development path. Energy security solutions can be met through efficiency and renewables.

Other Key Takeaways
Most new energy technologies are water intensive. Therefore, water will become an increasingly important issue on the international agenda. The energy issue is also linked to food security and development.

Nuclear energy is being considered as a clean and renewable source of energy. In many cases, nuclear energy may help countries meet goals set at the Copenhagen meeting. But there are risks with the nuclear, including waste disposal, proliferation and a huge diversion of capital.