[MUSIC] Welcome to the course on Politics and Economics of International Energy. This course will extend over eight weeks. And I hope that you will be patient with me and follow what we have to say for the next eight weeks. Energy is very important for our daily lives. And it is with the progressive development of modern energy sources that humankind has been able to free itself from hunger, poverty, and destitution. So it is really important to make sure that energy is available to as many people as possible, indeed to all. And we expect that with progress of technology, energy consumption will keep on increasing, energy demand will keep on increasing. And also the same at the global level will be the outcome, with growing population, especially in certain continents, and growing income per capita. So universal access to modern energy is an essential component of the so-called global development goals. Without universal access to modern energy, it is not possible for the people that do not still have access to really prosper and learn and be productive. This is, I think, the experience of each one of us. Without energy, we cannot operate our smartphones, our computers, our cars, our airplanes. We cannot even warm up our houses, so it is really an essential element in modern life. The current energy system, nevertheless, is not sustainable, and that is the problem. The problem is connected with global warming, with the fact that the current energy system is based on fossil fuels. Primarily 85% of our energy today comes out of fossil fuels. And this is generating emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which in turn translates into increasing temperature. The potential consequences of global warming are catastrophic, and they will affect everybody. We have known this for a while now. The international community has been discussing about global warming and ways to avoid it for at least 30 years. And yet we have made very little progress. The reliance on fossil fuels has not diminished at all at the global level in these past 30 years. So we need to focus on this issue, find new ideas, find new policies, find ways to cooperate globally in order to get our energy act together. This is the second edition of this course. The first one was launched some five years ago, and it has been very successful. We have attracted some 25,000 enrolled students. I am grateful to all that have been interested in this course, and hope that it will continue to attract a large number of students. We have in this second edition added contents to take into account the new developments, of which there are many. Many things have changed in the past five years. And also try to revise the structure in such a way that it will be possible to continuously updating it in the future. So you will see sometimes that the figures, the graphs that I present in the lectures are not the latest. But in those cases, we have added reading materials which reflects the latest numbers, the latest developments. And in this way, we hope that the course will remain valid in the longer run. As I mentioned, the course is structured in eight weeks. We begin the first week with a view of global energy trends. How energy demand has grown, from which sources it has been satisfied, in which parts of the world different sources are more used, and so on and so forth. And then we also look at scenarios for the future, which are crucially important for our understanding of what needs to happen. And we will look at how different assumptions, different policies may yield very different results in the future. In the second week, we will discuss policies for decarbonization. Policies both based on market mechanism, i.e., prices, or based on administrative tools. And whether they are aiming at developing non-carbon sources of energy or improving energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption. And also utilizing carbon-based, fossil fuel-based sources of energy in a way that does not allow emissions of greenhouse gases, and therefore prevents global warming. In the third week, we are going to discuss especially the renewable energy sources. I will explain which these sources are, what are the problems linked to each of them. And also the issue of energy storage, especially electricity storage. Which is a challenge for the future, maybe the main challenge for the future. In the fourth week, we will speak about oil. Oil remains today the single most important primary source of energy. And people expect that this might change down the road, that we may reach a peak in oil demand. In the past, we were worried about a peak in oil supply. Today, we are discussing about if and when a peak in oil demand will become visible. In the fifth week, we will discuss natural gas. Both economic aspects and geopolitical aspects of natural gas are important and must be taken into account. Most scenarios agree that natural gas will play a growing role in the coming decades. And so it is very important to understand what are the implications of that. In the sixth week, we are going to tackle nuclear energy, which is not liked by many. But in most scenarios of decarbonization, nuclear energy is expected to play a growing role. Because it is a source that has many problems, but has the advantage of not entailing, not generating any emissions of greenhouse gases. In the seventh week, we will discuss security of energy supply. And that is an important concern for many governments. And even for individuals who care about having consistent, reliable supply of energy. And it is a concern that may, at times, conflict with decarbonization goals. Because some countries may have abundant national resources of fossil fuels. And therefore might be reluctant to abandon these fossil fuels and rely on alternatives. And finally, in week eight, we are going to discuss the nexus between energy and development. The energy transition will undoubtedly have an impact on economic development and economic conditions of different countries. This is expected by some to be primarily positive. But there is no doubt that there are also negative potential consequences. And we need to have a complete view of the pluses and minuses of the promises and the problems, and this needs to be taken into account. Especially because, most likely, the energy transition will end up benefiting some and damaging others, as is always the case with basically any change. And it is very important to make sure that the ones who may be damaged by the energy transition are sufficiently taken care of and compensated. Otherwise, we'll never have enough of a consensus at the global level for moving in the direction of pursuing the energy transition in making sure that we avoid global warming.
