Current trends depict an irreversible momentum for a global energy transformation. Renewables have moved to the centre of the global energy landscape. Technological advances and falling costs have made renewables grow faster than any other energy source. Many renewable technologies are now cost-competitive with fossil fuels in the power sector, even before taking into account their contributions to the battles against air pollution and climate change. These trends are creating an irreversible momentum for a global energy transformation leading to shifts that will affect almost all countries and will have wide-ranging geopolitical consequences.
This report published by IRENA's Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Energy & Industry, and the German Federal Foreign Office looks into these developments from a foreign policy perspective.
Working with over 30 partners, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has recently launched the Resource Watch. The platform provides a wide array of data sets on various sustainability topics, ranging from food security to urban climate challenges.
"From Riches to Rags?" looks into the subject of stranded assets in the fossil fuel sector. Stranded assets are assets that lose value, or generate new liabilities, before they reach the end of their (planned) economic life. In this paper, assets primarily refer to fossil fuel resources (oil, gas and coal) that need to stay in the ground because otherwise the 2-degree target specified in the Paris Agreement would be jeopardised.
At the Paris Climate Conference held in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement – the first universal, legally binding global climate deal. The signatory parties committed themselves to a global action plan that aims to keep global warming to well below 2°C and to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
The growing number and impact of extreme weather events has led to increasing awareness in the extractives industries of the potential negative impacts of climate change. The industry has started thinking about its own vulnerabilities and the risks climate change could pose. However, there has been little research and debate that takes a more comprehensive look at the links between climate change and mining. With the report Climate Change and Mining.
This report explores natural World Heritage sites, which, as large areas of habitat, play an important role in increasing resilience and providing vital protection against climate change impacts. Alarmingly, the report finds that almost half of these sites are currently threatened by operations such as mining, large-scale infrastructure or oil and gas exploration since too often short-term financial gain is favoured over long-term sustainable development.
This report focuses on energy-water conflicts which are linked to the coal industry's impact on current and future water demand. Published by Greenpeace International, the study features five case studies of water conflicts due to coal expansion and identifies regions in which already existing and planned coal plants will further aggravate water scarcity.
This research paper takes as its starting point the idea that neither conflict nor peace is an inevitable consequence of resource development in fragile or conflict-affected settings.
Natural Resources and Conflicts: A Guide for Mediation Practitioners. Nairobi. New York.
Encouraging Peace-building through Better Environmental and Natural Resource Management. Briefing paper EER BP 2013/04. Chatham House.
Scoping Paper: Mining and Metals in a Sustainable World. Mining & Metals Industry Partnership in collaboration with Accenture. February 2014.
Still Digging: Extractive Industries, Resource Curses, and Transnational Governance in the Anthropocene. Washington, DC: Transatlantic Academy.
The Politics of the Resource Curse: A Review. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) October 2013.
The Role of Natural Resources in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration. Addressing Risks and Seizing Opportunities. Suppoted by the European Union and the Governments of the Netherlands and Finland.