Low-carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective

Low-Carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective draws on the European Commission‘s funded project MILESECURE-2050. It considers low-carbon energy security and energy geopolitics in Europe, with a focus on four thematic clusters: challenging the energy security paradigm; climate change and energy security objectives (the components of a secure and low-carbon energy system); energy security in a geopolitical perspective, as it relates to economics, resource competition, and availability; and the influence of large scale renewable energy projects on energy security and shifting geopolitical alliances.

An overarching narrative is that optimizing the energy system simultaneously across different objectives may be impossible, i.e., lowest cost, least environmental impact, minimal downtime, regional supply. This book explores these charged topics through insights from a series of novel, new energy project case studies, and demonstrates the need for difficult political conversations within Europe and beyond by posing fundamental yet new questions about the energy security paradigm.

• Offers a unique perspective on low-carbon energy security by considering the assumptions behind current energy security needs
• Suggests the benefit of envisioning energy security through out-of-the-box scenario development with respect to the energy system
• Includes energy in an international scenario with case studies from Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Morroco, China, South America, and Europe
• Draws on the European Commission‘s funded project MILESECURE-2050

Professional/ practitioner audience, graduate-level academia, policy making experts, practitioners and officers in European energy planning offices and environmental, economic, international relations, and political science researchers from academia and research institutions.

• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Chapter 1. Challenging the Energy Security Paradigm
  • 1.1. Introduction: The Prevailing Energy Security Paradigm
  • 1.2. Harmonizing Energy and Climate Policies
  • 1.3. Our Approach
  • 1.4. Structure of the Book
• Chapter 2. European Union Energy Policy Evolutionary Patterns
  • 2.1. Introduction
  • 2.2. The Development of the EU Energy Policy
  • 2.3. Current Energy Regime and Main Challenges for Energy Security
  • 2.4. Past, Present and Future European Union Climate and Energy Strategies
  • 2.5. Conclusions
• Chapter 3. A Study of Russia as Key Natural Gas Supplier to Europe in Terms of Security of Supply and Market Power
  • 3.1. Introduction
  • 3.2. Current Look at Natural Gas in the EU
  • 3.3. European Union–Russia Gas Relations
  • 3.4. EU Policies Targeted to Improve Natural Gas Security
  • 3.5. Russian Gas Strategies Under Uncertainty
  • 3.6. Conclusion
• Chapter 4. The Macroregional Geopolitics of Energy Security: Towards a New Energy World Order?
  • 4.1. Introduction
  • 4.2. Energy Security in the International Debate
  • 4.3. The Macroregional Geopolitics of Energy Security
  • 4.4. European Energy Geopolitics: Key Regions
  • 4.5. Conclusions and Future Perspectives
• Chapter 5. Reshaping Equilibria: Renewable Energy Mega-Projects and Energy Security
  • 5.1. Introduction: Assessing the Contribution of Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects to Low-Carbon Energy Security
  • 5.2. Tapping the Desert for Sustainable Power: Morocco and North Africa
  • 5.3. The Winds of the North Sea
  • 5.4. Lessons for a Low-Carbon and Secure Energy Transition
• Chapter 6. European Distributed Renewable Energy Case Studies
  • 6.1. Introduction
  • 6.2. Anticipatory Experiences: Reflecting How We Envisage the Long-term Ways Renewable Energy Will Compete With Fossil Fuels in a Liberalised Market Environment
  • 6.3. The German Experience of the Energiewende
  • 6.4. The Italian Experience With Renewable Energy
  • 6.5. Costs, Competitiveness and Climate Change Mitigation in European Union Energy Security Policy
  • 6.6. Conclusion
• Chapter 7. Energy Security in Low-Carbon Pathways
  • 7.1. Introduction
  • 7.2. Review of Global Scenarios in the Fifth IPCC Report
  • 7.3. Global Evaluation of Energy Security Challenges in Low-Carbon Pathways
  • 7.4. Conclusion
• Chapter 8. Towards Governance of Energy Security
  • 8.1. Introduction: Transition as an Unstructured Problem
  • 8.2. The Conceptual Babylon of Energy Security
  • 8.3. The Impossibility of Reducing Factual Uncertainty
  • 8.4. Unstructured Problems
  • 8.5. Governance for Energy Security
  • 8.6. Conclusions
• Chapter 9. Reducing Uncertainty Through a Systemic Risk-Management Approach
  • 9.1. Introduction: Structuring Energy Security
  • 9.2. Towards a Systemic View on Energy Security
  • 9.3. Secure Energy Systems in Practice
  • 9.4. Governance of Systemic Risks
  • 9.5. Conclusion
• Chapter 10. Towards a Low-Carbon, Citizens-Driven Europe’s Energy Security Agenda
  • 10.1. Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Energy Security in Europe
  • 10.2. The Rise of the Human Factor
  • 10.3. Some Major Recommendations for Improving European Energy Policies
• Index