The New Energy Crisis: Climate, Economics and Geopolitics.

• Author: Rose, Adam

The New Energy Crisis: Climate, Economics and Geopolitics, edited by JEAN-MARIE CHEVALIER and PATRICE GEOFFRON (Palgrave Macmillan; Second Edition, Revised, 2013) 340 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0230301825, Hardcover.

This is the second edition of an edited book that first appeared in 2009. In his forward to the volume Claude Mandil, former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, notes that the world has undergone a good many "upheavals" since 2009, including the global financial crises, Arab Spring, unconventional natural gas recovery acceleration, and Fukushima. To this one might add an increased number of natural disasters, the BP oil spill, continued political and economic deterioration in Iraq, and increased tensions between Russia and its trading partners. However, the long-term fundamental issues Mandil notes are still intact: guaranteeing a sustainable energy supply, doing so without exacerbating climate change, and ensuring that energy policies will be consistent with economic goals. He suggests that the issues are intertwined and the "causes are similar and, therefore, the remedies are largely the same." The differences are ascribed to history, geography, and geology. Accordingly, Mandil notes that the book appropriately proceeds with a country or regional perspective.

This is, however a bit misleading. While five of the chapters do focus on distinct regions (Asia, Russia and the Caspian Sea area, Middle East and Northern Africa, U.S., and Europe), other chapters are distinguished on a thematic basis in relation to carbon fuels in general, oil and gas, nuclear, and renewables, as well as distinct topics relating to poverty, development, finance, politics, security, and climate change. At the outset one should also question whether the energy crisis described in the book is "new." To this writer, the book does present a reasonably accurate depiction of the situation, but I would argue that is not new. Conditions underlying the crisis are more than twenty years old in terms of the growth spurt of China and other major countries in the developing world, and some manifestations of climate change. Perhaps the newness is more one of awareness or consensus of the issues than was present in the early 1900s.

In their Introduction, Chevalier and Geoffron state that "Climate change has revealed the current energy/environmental situation is unsustainable." They cite the prospects of China, for example, attaining the same energy consumption levels as today's industrialized countries, as well as the energy demands needed just to lift the developing world out of poverty. The problem is to be able to accomplish these objectives without accelerating climate change. The authors cite three interacting correcting mechanisms: actions, adaptations and higher energy prices. They note the interactions among them, in that, if actions are delayed, adaptation will have to increase, and with higher prices being the equilibrating factor. Much of this assessment...