Carbon Neutrality and the Changing Landscape of Global Energy Politics

The international low-carbon energy transition has been accelerated by national carbon neutral targets.Global consumption of traditional energy sources is entering a bottleneck,the development of new and renewable energy is accelerating,and trends of energy electrification,networking,and digitalization are rising.At the same time,amid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,some radical and political emissions reduction measures in the low-carbon transition process have exacerbated a short-term international energy supply–demand imbalance,resulting in soaring energy prices and electricity shortages in many countries.The ongoing global energy shortage underscores the complexity and long-term character of the international energy transition,suggesting that the lowcarbon transition process will face numerous new energy security issues.The energy structure shift to low carbon is driving the adjustment of both the connotations and structures of world energy politics,accelerating the evolution of the concept of energy security,strategy,and international energy security frameworks.Traditional and new energy geopolitical games are being played simultaneously,and the global energy geopolitical landscape is brewing multiple new changes.

Energy Politics and Security Concepts from Multidimensional Perspectives

Even though the foregoing theories on international relations give different interpretations on this issue,they are actually interactional and overlapping.Also they seem to share more and more common features.With the acceleration of economic globalization since the end of the Cold War,nation states are increasingly interdependent in the energy sector while competition and coordination become the mainstream of international energy politics.Consequently all parties have put growing importance on international energy cooperation and its institutional construction.They believe that energy security should be achieved through international cooperation and coordination,for it is closely linked with sustainable development of economy and society as well as the external political and economic relations of nation states.

New Trends in International Energy Security in the Context of Profound Changes Unseen in a Century

Major changes such as the pandemic, games among great powers, and the Ukraine crisis alongside scientific and technological progress, economic transformation, social change, and cultural development have led to new features and trends in the international energy field. Historic fluctuations in international energy prices and adjustments in energy relations have taken place in the past two years. The energy system has fallen into disorder and discomfort;volatility in the energy market has triggered a strong domino effect, and major countries have taken unprecedented measures to address it. These changes have pushed international energy politics to a new development track. In a certain period of time in the future, the political and security aspects of energy will once again come to the fore. The long-term nature and complexity of the energy transition have become more obvious. In international energy politics, turbulence and uncertainty will be the new normal. A new binary opposition may emerge in the international energy landscape as well, with constant changes taking place in the connotation and extension of energy security. Academic and strategic circles should think deeply about how to dialectically discuss the relation between energy transition and the major changes of a scale unseen in a century, energy transition and energy security, and geopolitics and energy politics, among others, and consider the integration of development and security and the realization of common energy security as important principles for operating and developing energy strategies and promoting global energy governance.

China’s Energy Driven Initiatives with Iran:Implications for the United States

This article explores China’s contemporary energy initiative with the Islamic Republic of Iran,which is one of the largest energy reserves regions.Iran is one of the five natural gas producers and top 10 oil producers in the world-it has an asset of 1/3 of OPEC natural gas reserves.China has initiated the upstream and downstream joint ventures with Iran,banks and backed-loans policies and its companies of national oil are mounting the capacity of energy that will flow from Iran.China’s financial potency,zero military installation and limited political involvement in the region gives her a unique balance from its open access to the Iran energy resources.Critically,it is evidenced that the political implications of China’s energy gaining strategy,the potential for conflict,cooperation with the US,and the probability of the repositioning of major powers in Iran will give China a unique vantage point in the future.It’s an epicenter for US-China rivalry too.

The GCC-Russia-China LNG Triangle: The Role of Transnational Knowledge Networks and Epistemic Communities to Govern Complex Systems

This paper analyzes and discusses the prospects for GCC-Russia-China transnational knowledge networks and epistemic communities in natural gas and liquified natural gas(LNG)production and trade.The premise of the article is that transnational knowledge relations between academia,government,business,civil society and wider facilitate political,economic,technological and strategic relations between countries.This article looks at the role and potential of transnational knowledge relations and epistemic communications between the GCC,Russia(focus on Russian Arctic)and China in the field of natural gas and LNG production and trade.In addition,the article will briefly expand on these transnational,transdisciplinary knowledge relations to include Japan,South Korea and other Arctic LNG producers as Norway and Alaska.