Challenges in the energy sector

The challenges in the energy sector

The role of energy in Europe and the world
Energy sector has been always a hot topic at the European level, and more in concrete a cornerstone of the European Union since its foundation. As a clear example the fact that one of the first Treaties and founding elements of the Union was EURATOM, its relevance remaining high up to the moment, and evenincreasing. This durable status is simply explained by the crucial role energy plays as a main enabler of economic activity, and hence social development. Energy is the key raw element enabling production and trade to a nation, the main drivers for economic growth. Without proper energy supply guarantee the conditions and incentives for manufacturing and transportation of goods are weakened, creatingmarket uncertainties and destabilizing national and even supranational economic systems. Clear examples on that we can find on the effects of the first and second oil crises into the world’s economy and the consequent fears the peak oil is generating nowadays. Therefore, given its nature of essential element for our economies, energy has always had to be taken into consideration. Actually, if weanalyze carefully, the human progress stages along history have always been strongly linked to energy revolutions. The technical and engineering improvements in several fields like the ability to use animal power, water and wind power, steam power, and coal and oil energetic capacities have generated as a reaction major evolving changes in the society.

Nowadays, however this issue has gained evenmore attention because of the uncertainties faced by the sector for the coming decades. And actually the fight for energetic resources control has created the hugest geopolitical perturbations and armed conflicts over the past years, many of them still open. We can find easy examples on how the energy dependence of European Union on uranium and gas from Russia affects their political relations orabout the role that the aim of controlling energy sources has played in Iraq invasion or Afghanistan war. Hence, this rather unclear future perspective, namely the foreseen run out of fossil fuels within this century combined with the public acceptance of the climate change phenomenon, has opened the door for speculation on the best solutions in front of the new worldwide energy challenges, with allkind of opinions and approaches. In any case, what studies unveil is that should all the world regions achieve the same degree of development as the most developed countries –something desirable and legitimate from a social justice point of view-, the needed resource consumption would require a space equal to 3.5 times our planet. This fact ought to make Western world reflect on our currentdevelopment model.

A green path for the future
At a broader level, it is important to define clearly the priorities. In this sense, a major goal is ensuring energy accessibility to everyone, including the most vulnerable regions. As explained before, without access to energy it is not possible for a society to develop, achieving and harmonization of life quality worldwide. However, on such anemergency planetary situation, not any means of achieving it is valid; we have reached a stage where we cannot afford any more satisfying the present needs at expense of future generations. Therefore, this fair energy supply has no other option but to be provided according to sustainability standards. We are dealing with an issue of global and cross-generational concern. Once achieved this, it isimportant to work in the direction of energy independency. This means that a nation is able to autonomously exploit and manage natural resources in order to self-supply the amount of energy required for internal consumption. This scheme provides economic and political stability by reducing the dependency and vulnerability from third countries; we are planting a seed for development. Finally, it is...