Energy - Climate
In the face of the climate emergency and geopolitical confrontations, how can we reconcile security of supply, competitiveness, accessibility, decarbonization and acceptability? What policies are needed?
Related Subjects
Addressing the Climate Emergency: Closing 1,000 Gigawatts of Coal Plants by 2035
In order to have any chance of limiting global warming to well below +2°C, there is no choice but to tackle coal-fired power plants head-on, around the world.
The US Mineral Independance Strategy : An All-Out Mobilization
The Trump administration has been very actively designing and implementing a new strategy for reliable supply of critical minerals which aims at reducing the country’s vulnerabilities and becoming a leader in this field.
The Automotive Industry: The Achilles’ Heel of German Economy?
The global car market has been shrinking since 2018. This is a key economic sector for Germany whose producers belong to the Top 15 carmakers worldwide. Yet they are running the risk of being outclassed and eventually replaced, given emerging actors in the USA and China.
United States Climate Politics Under Biden: Is the Clean Energy Revolution Under Way?
For most of United States (US) history, environmental issues enjoyed bipartisan support. While Democratic President Johnson signed the Clean Air Act in 1963, Republican President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. America’s “environmental decade” culminated under President Carter, with Congress enacting ambitious environmental legislation.
The German Green Party, a new People's Party?
In the context of increasing awareness of the climate crisis, environmental parties across the EU obtained high scores in the European elections of May 2019, reaching 20% in Germany, 17% in Ireland, 16% in Finland and 13 % in France. Meanwhile, far-right parties gained strength.
South Africa’s Energy Policies: Are Changes Finally Coming?
Energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation in South Africa has been slow and bureaucratic, lacking visionary leadership, and marred by uncertainty. Policy positions and actions taken have tended to be reactive, and driven more by crisis management than by forward-looking leadership.
A Review of Recent Trends in China’s Gas Sector and a Glimpse into the 14th Five-Year Plan
China’s economy has rebounded since April 2020 and China is one of the few countries in the world that is expected to avoid a recession in 2020. With low imported gas prices, progress with the gas market liberalization and success in pushing up shale gas production, the window of a golden age for gas has opened up again in China.
Prospects of a Hydrogen Economy with Chinese Characteristics
This study assesses the prospects of a hydrogen economy with Chinese characteristics. Against the backdrop of an escalating US-China trade war and the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, key Chinese stakeholders become increasingly interested in moving the hydrogen economy agenda forward.
The Renovation Wave: A Make or Break for the European Green Deal
European buildings are old and too often inefficient, past policies have not delivered and the amount of investment into energy efficiency must be scaled up dramatically to meet the 2030 targets and ultimately, the carbon neutrality objective.
Turkey’s New Gas Discovery in the Black Sea and Its Potential Implications
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Turkey’s biggest gas discovery ever on August 21, 2020. Initial findings show that the estimated reserve capacity is 320 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
The EU Electricity Policy Outlook for the Smart Grid Roll-Out
The energy transition from a socio-economic system based on fossil fuels to a sustainable low-carbon system is a multi-facetted process. This “transformation” of the energy system, more specifically of the power system, creates several challenges.
Greenland and Iceland: Meeting Place of Global Powers in the Arctic
At the crossroads of American, European and Asian interests in the Arctic, Greenland and Iceland, the importance of which had for too long been underestimated, are set to play a central role in future regional developments. In order to exploit the potential of their growing economic ties with Asia, without becoming the Arctic “weak links”, Greenland and Iceland need to secure their economy on a long-term basis.
Strengths and weakness of the European Union gas security of supply
Lead Authors: Marie-Claire Aoun and Quentin Boulanger (IFRI); Authoring Team: Damir Pešut, Marko Matosović and Robert Bošnjak (EIHP); Paul Deane, James Glynn and Brian Ó Gallachóir (UCC); Reviewer: Nathalie Desbrosses (Enerdata)
Coal and Climate Change: the "Chinese Way" ?
This article, issued after Asia Center and ASEF's international conference on coal issues in China (26th and 27th of June 2014 in Beijing), tackles the challenges the country is facing in restructuring its coal industry, in a context of severe and recurrent air, soil and water pollution outbursts.
The European Energy Policy: Building New Perspectives
“After 17 years of supranationality, we are still seeking how to define a common energy policy and what it might be. [...] Could we have done more in one generation? Or were goals only established to achieve a political balance which it was explicitly agreed to ignore, once the machinery began to operate? Historians will have a hard task to distinguish between excessive ambitions and national hypocrisies”.
Raising the Costs to President Putin
-by building dissonance within. Some like to remember fondly the call by Ronald Reagan for Gorbachev “to tear down this wall”. The United States “Won the Cold War” said George Bush Senior in his State of the Union Address. We need to step back and recognize with some humility that the Soviet Union fell largely of its own weight rather than as a result of external pressure. Again today Russia is economically weak. It has become an exporter of raw materials, its industrial sector is weak, and its revenues are already falling. Conditions now offer the opportunity to aggravate Russia’s economic frailty – let’s focus on that.
Middle East Oil and Gas Producers: Soon to Be Back in the Lead?
The World Energy Outlook 2013 published by the IEA confirms that despite the rise of unconventional fuels in particular in the US, Middle East will by the mid-2020s retake its place as the world major oil and gas supplier, providing most of the increase in global supplies. Well, there are some big ifs.
Ukraine: Is Europe Ready for Another Gas Cut?
The turmoil in Ukraine is now putting one question on everyone mouth: what if Russian gas transiting through Ukraine was cut once again? Today, Ukrainian gas pipelines still carry around 60% of the Russian gas intended for the European Union; i.e. around 16% of the EU final gas consumption.
Reading Rouhani Right
Poll numbers are the life blood of politics these days. Anything expressed in digits has a claim to truth that assertions without digits cannot make. They inspire confidence - especially among those aspiring to public office - that they actually understand what public sentiment is. If you lived between nuclear-armed Israel and Pakistan and had as many world class enemies as Iran has accumulated - would you give up your pursuit of a nuclear weapon?
The Impact of the Development of Shale Gas in the United States on Europa's Petrochemical Industries
The shale gas revolution has led to strong falls in energy prices, reducing significantly the raw material costs of the US petrochemical industry. Between 2008 and 2012, US gas prices fell by two thirds.
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Center for Energy & Climate
Ifri's Energy and Climate Center carries out activities and research on the geopolitical and geoeconomic issues of energy transitions such as energy security, competitiveness, control of value chains, and acceptability. Specialized in the study of European energy/climate policies as well as energy markets in Europe and around the world, its work also focuses on the energy and climate strategies of major powers such as the United States, China or India. It offers recognized expertise, enriched by international collaborations and events, particularly in Paris and Brussels.