“I have seen 1st hand how climate change drives conflicts in many crisis zones”. Tom Middendorp, former Chief of Defense of the Netherlands Armed Forces, on 27 June addressed in this way the security perspective of the energy transition at the Second Meeting of the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of energy transformation. This Commission was launched in January 2018 during the Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) with the support of Germany, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. Building on the roadmap established towards the development of a report to be released during IRENA’s next Assembly in January 2019, four meetings are scheduled.
While most geopolitical analyses of energy-related issues have focused on conventional natural sources, the aim here will be to review the implications of the global energy transformation and to report on how it would impact the geopolitics of energy based on rigorous and credible evidence. To do so, this commission was composed of twelve policymakers and experts on energy and security.
It is crucial to build an englobing and robust assessment of the transformative trend of our age in the energy field, but it is also crucial to acknowledge the evolving geopolitics of that transition. For the better, we the potential of moving in a post-carbon era with a new effective pathway to poverty reduction increased energy access and economic growth, or for the worst, with the inevitable geopolitical complications of the energy transition as well as the effect of climate change on many of the world populations.
Such initiative is part of a momentum to build a milestone in understanding the relevant nexus of effect between natural resource, technological development, human security, energy transition and climate security. This priority convergence with the Planetary Security Conference which will focus one of its themes, through high-level workshops, on the geopolitics of energy transition.