Beds Are Burning: Energy, Climate, and Geopolitics

Midnight Oil, Beds Are Burning [1987]

Russia’s war against Ukraine has vividly demonstrated how energy supplies can be weaponised. In this context, the REPowerEU plan, the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement are not just principled initiatives, but crucial projects for energy security and a sustainable future. However, energy transition also raises the issue of social justice: inside the EU and the US, and for developing countries which must provide for growing energy demands with limited means. There is an acute need for new approaches and out of the box solutions.

Speakers

Steve Clemons

Editor at Large at The National Interest

Lykke Friis

Director, Think Tank Europa

Charles Grant

Director of the Centre for European Reform

Geir Westgaard

Senior Adviser for Global External Analysis at Equinor

Moderator

Kaja Kallas

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission

What is the impact of the war on the geopolitics of energy and climate?
Will Europe now learn to look at energy through the lens of security?
How, in view of the war, should we regard Russian oil and gas supplies?
What new approaches can be considered?
Can they still be compatible with the objectives defined in the Green Deal and the Paris Agreement?
How can energy transition be implemented in a socially just way, without dooming whole regions and states that have so far depended, and even thrived, on the fossil fuel economy?