Energy security

In 2014 Jessica Jewell a multi-model comparison on energy security-driven scenarios, as depicted by energy independence targets in all world regions.

The paper that came out of these scenarios is the first systematic evaluation of the effect one key energy security strategy would have on greenhouse gas emissions and the energy system.  

It was found that the relationship between energy independence and climate policies is asymmetric: while climate change mitigation would significantly decrease energy imports in almost all world regions [1], energy independence policies have very little impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

ENE also co-authored two papers [2] [3] examining how and why different energy systems become energy security issues in different political contexts.  

Building on the traditional security literature, it was argued that energy security policy analysis should start with three basic questions: security for whom? security for which values? security from which threats?

This framework was then used to analyze energy security policies and discourses in China to explain why oil continues to be the energy security issue in the policy arena, even though China is the sixth biggest oil producer in the world and has not experienced a disruption in the past two decades [4]. This was found to be due to the centralized institutions to protect oil which were set up in the 1960s following a Soviet oil embargo and that, in spite of the growth of Chinese oil production through the 1990s, continue to promote the importance of oil as a security issue. In contrast, no centralized institutions exist to govern either coal or electricity.

Last edited: 28 April 2015