This chapter explains what has been meant by energy security in different periods and research contexts. It elaborates on the history of energy security research and creates a typology of internal and external dimensions of energy security. Subsequently, the chapter describes the research on the geopolitics of energy, focusing on the geopolitics of renewable energy and the different implications envisaged to unfold from the energy transition. The chapter ends with a brief summary of the EU’s approach to energy security. The chapter, thereby, creates a research context for the empirical analyses conducted in this book.

This chapter looks at the process of restructuring of energy governance in CEE countries, focusing on common patterns and differences in terms of market opening, competition and patterns of ownership. Here it maps efforts towards the liberalisation of the energy sector and explains the enduring variation in political and economic institutions across countries. The challenge of liberalising energy markets while ensuring energy security is discussed in more detail, looking in particular at the implications for the complicated relationship with Russia. Finally, the chapter asks to what extent this restructuring, however incomplete, has permitted an opening of the structure of energy governance to new actors.

Energy supply security has been a crucial energy policy issue for CEE countries at least since the natural gas supply disruptions of 2006 and 2009. This book argues that energy security plays a generally more important role within the CEE region than issues related to climate change. However, this chapter evaluates the interplay between ideas, institutions and the material nature of energy systems in the development of energy policy. In doing so it also highlights the social construction of energy security, demonstrating that energy security is not self-evident or correlated within the CEE region with dependency on energy imports from Russia. Individual CEE countries perceive energy supplies as a security issue to a different extent, identifying the source and extent of insecurity or risk differently, and supporting different policy responses as a result. While some countries, for example, Hungary or Bulgaria, have tended to perceive Russian energy as a means to guarantee energy security, others – most notably, Lithuania and Poland – consider energy security to be one of their main policy issues and imports of Russian energy as one of the main threats to this.

This chapter focuses on the impact of CEE countries on the development of climate and energy policies at the EU level. It is argued that states in the region demonstrate some shared preferences and utilise regional groupings to promote these at the EU level. The chapter discusses the contribution of CEE countries to the development of EU policy – such as Polish efforts to create an ‘Energy NATO’, CEE countries’ efforts to improve energy security following the 2006 and 2009 gas crises, the 2014 Energy Union, and the reaction to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The chapter argues that the security dimension was given priority by CEE countries at the EU level. They contributed to placing energy security on the EU’s agenda during accession negotiations and the immediate post-accession period; however, their preferences were often not shared by older members. It was the 2006 and 2009 gas supply disruptions that shifted the focus towards energy security in the region, and at the EU level. In 2022 the EU’s dependency on and vulnerability to high levels of energy imports from Russia were brought into sharp focus.

After uncovering oil’s role in decolonization, one question immediately emerges: what about other natural resources? Although oil is neither the only fossil fuel on which we depend nor the only resource that produces a substantial amount of wealth, it appears to be the only natural resource that can lead to separate independence. This chapter compares oil and other natural resources to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between natural resources and territorial sovereignty. Through an investigation of coal, precious metals, and natural gas, it argues that natural resources can lead colonial areas to divergent outcomes – namely amalgamation, separate independence, and secessionism – after decolonization depending on (1) their commercial value and (2) the timing of their discovery. While resources with low economic value did not affect the territoriality of states, those with high value resulted in three different outcomes. Resources discovered before or during the process of colonization often resulted in amalgamation into a larger entity. Those discovered between colonization and decolonization often resulted in separate independence. Finally, those discovered after decolonization often led to secessionism.

This chapter discusses restrictions on the import of Russian oil and natural gas into the U.S. and Europe. The chapter also situates this discussion in the context of European dependence on Russian energy supplies and resulting difficulties in enacting energy-related sanctions and trade restrictions. It discusses how a price cap was implemented in order to make energy-related sanctions placed on Russia more effective. Finally, it considers how policymakers are attempting to balance current energy needs with longer-term goals like reducing dependence on Russian energy supplies and building towards a more sustainable future.

What are the legacy energy sources and what are the impacts as we move to renewables?

This chapter examines the importance of natural gas for electricity generation in Australia. Gas-fired power plants use either a boiler to create steam, which turns the turbine and generates electricity, or a combustion turbine to create a rotating mass that generates electricity. Natural gas is also used commercially and domestically for cooking and heating purposes. In both instances, once extracted, natural gas must be transported from the well-head through gathering and processing facilities into storage or transportation pipelines. Gas has become one of the primary fossil fuels used to generate electricity in Australia. Electricity is aggregated and sold through the national energy market. This is set up by the National Electricity Law (NEL). The transportation and distribution of gas is regulated by the National Gas Law. The retail sale of electricity is regulated by the National Electricity Retail Law. This chapter examines how the national energy market has been established under the NEL.

Aside from implementing WWS and storage technologies, the main suggestions for reducing or eliminating energy-related emissions have included using natural gas for electricity instead of coal, using natural gas or coal with carbon capture, using nuclear power instead of fossil fuels for electricity, using biomass with or without carbon capture for electricity, using liquid biofuels instead of gasoline or diesel for transportation, and using blue instead of green hydrogen. Non-energy-producing methods have also been proposed to remediate global warming. These include primarily synthetic direct air carbon capture and geoengineering. Policies that include these technologies along with WWS technologies are referred to as “all-of-the-above” policies, since they involve promoting most all technologies, regardless of their side effects, cost, effectiveness, or length of time between planning and operation. The justification for using these technologies is that they are a bridge between current carbon-intense technologies and WWS. This chapter discusses these non-WWS technologies and delineates the reasons why they are not needed or helpful for solving global warming, air pollution, and energy security problems.

Ethylene ranks among the top-20 chemicals, with nearly 200 million metric tons made globally in 2020. Its production requires much energy that is currently derived from fossil fuels. This chapter discusses environmental impacts for ethylene production from petroleum, natural gas and biomass sources, predicted using commercial software. Most of the predicted environmental impacts are within the same order of magnitude. For all feedstocks, the main sources of adverse environmental impacts are greenhouse gas emissions, acidification and air pollution stemming from the burning of fossil-based fuel; and for agricultural operations, production of fertilizers and pesticides needed for cultivation (in the case of ethanol), ocean-based transportation of crude oil and the chemical processing steps (for all feedstocks). An assessment of the environmental impacts of different fossil energy sources (coal, natural gas and fuel oil) reveals almost similar carbon footprints to produce a given quantity of energy. The predicted emissions agree well with the actual emissions data reported by coal-based and natural gas-based power plants to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

The chapter evaluates the origin of natural gas, the principles of hydraulic fracturing, and provides the magnitude of water use for hydraulic fracturing, conventional gas drilling, and electricity generation. The chapter presents the changes of the water footprint of hydraulic fracturing and water intensity over time in the USA and China. The chapter draws upon data from emerging scientific reports in the USA to explore the global implications of unconventional energy for other countries with shale gas potential. The chapter presents the major organic constituents associated with frac water used for hydraulic fracturing. The origin, geochemistry, and volume of flowback and produced water and their impact on water resources are also presented. The chapter discusses the chemical composition of produced and flowback waters, the contaminants in these wastes. The chapter explores the debate on the effect of stray gas contamination. The chapter discusses the mechanisms of potential groundwater and surface water contamination. The chapter evaluates the mechanism of coalbed methane extraction and environmental implications. The chapter discusses the different regulations and possible safeguards to protect fresh water resources from hydraulic fracturing.

This chapter first illustrates the fundamental characteristics of natural gas, including: (i) History of natural gas; (ii) Where natural gas resources are currently located across the globe, also with a focus on the difference between conventional and unconventional resources; (iii) Technological aspects of natural gas exploration, production, and transport; (iv) Global natural gas production, consumption, and trade trends. It then outlines the characteristics of natural gas markets in different regions of the world, and how they differ from oil markets. To conclude, the chapter discusses the geopolitical issues associated with access to natural gas.