IEA, the International Energy Agency, has recently published its World Energy Outlook 2024, and it highlights that significant fragilities have been made to today’s energy system by regional conflicts and geopolitical tension.
The Russia-Ukraine war and the conflicts in the Middle East are the major issues that are posing threats, as these regions are the most important energy-producing areas. However, the report is optimistic about the journey towards a sustainable energy system mainly because of the environment-friendly technological advancements.
Apart from the geopolitical crisis, the report observes that the traditional energy systems and clean technologies are becoming fragmented. This article will provide a comprehensive summary of the World Energy Outlook 2024 and discuss the emerging geopolitical tensions amidst the climate crisis in detail.
How Geopolitics and Wars are Linked to Energy and Climate Crisis?
It is important to understand that climate change will affect all sorts of things on the Earth, and vice versa. A prominent example is the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption. This volcano explosion in Indonesia, then East India, was the most destructive eruption in the past 10,000 years of Earth. It significantly impacted lives around the globe, and the long-lasting effects can even be observed in the present world.
The radical shifts in the 19th-century political and cultural situations of Europe which later spread across other parts of the globe, was attributed to the Tambora explosion. The eruption led to heavy rains in Europe, causing massive deaths, famine, inflation, and regular riots. The dark clouds were present throughout the next year, 1816, termed “A Year Without a Summer”. It increased the emigration from Europe to North America.
This occurred just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and the instability caused the governments to create new measures to prevent a global catastrophe, and Congress of Vienna, which reshaped the world, was formed.
Coming back to the present situation, experts have warned that this time, a similar crisis is gonna happen, but with the influence of humans. Military activities are using extensive amounts of energy, and they contribute to anthropogenic climate change, aiding manmade disasters.
Summary of World Energy Outlook 2024: Insights From the Report
The latest edition of World Energy Outlook (WEO) is around 400 pages long, and it analyses contemporary energy sources, growing geopolitical conflicts, market trends, and climate change with greater depth. The report, published yearly, is considered one of the most authoritative analyses on energy. It highlights two immediate issues to tackle, the geopolitics and the fragmentation of energy in the market.
- Geopolitical Issues: The Middle East wars and Russia’s war on Ukraine have increased the global energy crisis. The economy shrank, and the prices rose, resulting in a 70% change in the WTI crude oil.
- Fragmented Market: Since 2020, various trade measures that affect clean energy technologies have been introduced globally. From 2015 to 2020, there were only 40 restrictive trade measures, but now it has increased to 200.
Concluding Remarks: How to Survive?
Many of the previous energy challenges were sorted out by various global initiatives, but new disruptions have caused some vulnerabilities. The IEA through this report emphasizes again the need for cleaner energy systems that can significantly reduce global issues. WEO report indicates that we cannot build a sustainable future without the cooperation of nation-states.
The report highlights significant links between ongoing wars and the climate crisis, and the need for a global peace treaty. It highlights the importance of rethinking the current policy settings and the immediate movement into building a clean energy market.
The optimism shared by the report is the increase in electricity usage. According to IEA executive director Fatih Birol, “In energy history, we’ve witnessed the Age of Coal and the Age of Oil, and we’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity, which will define the global energy system going forward and increasingly be based on clean sources of electricity.”
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