On the first day of the Summit on the Future of Energy Security in London on Thursday 24 April, representatives from European countries reiterated the urgent need to continue down the path of decarbonisation and invest in clean, domestically-produced energy. Some, however, acknowledged that imports of fossil fuels were still necessary to ensure security of supply against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical and trade tensions.
These seemingly contradictory messages were echoed in the speech by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the summit. She emphasised the deployment of local renewable energies, but also acknowledged that, given the remaining energy dependence on Russia, energy partnerships, “including LNG imports from the United States”, remained ”of strategic importance for the European Union”.
This message comes several days before the Commission is due to present a ‘roadmap’ for the definitive phasing-out of Russian fossil fuels on 6 May, targeting in particular the remaining imports of Russian LNG.
The United States favours an “energy abundance” of fossil fuels. The President’s stance also comes against the backdrop of a stormy trade relationship with Donald Trump’s administration, which had previously made trade concessions to the EU conditional on an increase in US LNG supplies.
During a debate, the French Minister for Industry and Energy, Marc Ferracci, regretted, without quoting the US administration directly, that “the gas trade is used as a bargain on global trade” more broadly.
The French Minister also called for “a new European energy policy for the 21st century”, based on the decarbonisation and electrification of the European economy. “As long as we remain dependent on fossil fuels, there will be no energy security for Europe”, he insisted.
Without directly addressing these trade considerations, Tommy Joyce, the US Department of Energy’s Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of International Affairs, stressed instead that the future of US energy security would be defined by “energy growth and abundance”, dominated by oil, gas and coal.
Mr Joyce also criticised the climate policies of the previous US administration, which he claimed are leading to an energy shortage. “These policies have been embraced by many, not just the United States, and harm human lives”, he added.
Countries “free” to decide how to ensure their energy security. While the United States was well represented at the summit, countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Russia were not present.
The event, organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA), brought together companies, organisations and representatives from 60 governments from around the world, including 20 EU countries (see EUROPE 13626/9).
If the messages from European countries focused mainly on decarbonising the energy system, a country like Iraq, a member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), reiterated the importance of crude oil for its economy.
Hayyan Abdel-Ghani, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, pointed out that “fossil fuels will remain not only a source of energy, but also a basis for industries such as petrochemicals”, and that “this must be taken into account in expanding and increasing investment in renewable energies and reducing emissions”.
The IEA’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol, stressed in his opening speech that countries were free to decide how to ensure their national energy security. He even acknowledged that oil and gas “will continue to play a role in the future”.
However, he pointed out that countries were interconnected and suffered, for example, from energy price shocks or the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, and that it was therefore necessary to promote cooperation and multilateralism.
Challenge of access to critical raw materials. In the same vein, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, acknowledged in his speech that “fossil fuels will be part of our energy mix for decades to come”, but that success in energy security “will depend on change and cooperation with other players”.
Mr Birol also stressed that beyond the current risks linked to the security of gas and oil supplies, one of the most important “emerging” challenges for the future was access to critical raw materials to meet the growth in clean technologies. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)