<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/trumps-drill-baby-drill-plan-is-a-disaster-for-energy-security-and-prices/>
"In July 2022, I was covering the Sydney Energy Forum for
Renew Economy. The
forum was convened by the then newly elected Australian Labor Government and
brought together Australia’s major trade partners to collaborate on
opportunities in clean energy supply chains.
At the time, global energy markets were reeling from the impacts of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, which had disrupted energy supplies to Europe. Those
disruptions rippled through global energy markets, pushing fossil fuel prices
higher in virtually every market.
On the surface, the conference was about allies like Australia, the United
States, Japan, India and other Indo-Pacific nations responding to the impacts
of Russia’s invasion by forming new trade and collaboration agreements on
low-emissions tech. The United States, in particular, had a major presence at
the Sydney Energy Forum having sent then-US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm.
What went unspoken at the forum was the emerging threat from China. While the
rest of the Indo-Pacific was well represented, Chinese representation was
effectively nil. China controls a huge proportion of the global supply of clean
energy equipment – particularly solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and
electric vehicles and it was that level of control that had likely prompted the
Australian Government to convene the forum.
The likely reasoning was that if Russia had been able to cause the level of
chaos it had achieved in global gas markets by invading a neighbour, could not
China also cause similar levels of disruption to the deployment of clean
energy, if it decided to withhold supplies of solar, wind, battery and EV
products from the United States or Australia?
Such a fear was never spoken out loud at the forum – if only to avoid provoking
the Chinese government and causing a diplomatic incident – but Secretary
Granholm made clear that it was critical the United States and its allies made
greater investments in not just deploying renewable energy technologies, but
also in developing their own domestic clean technology manufacturing
capabilities.
“If we want to build a clean economy that avoids the vulnerabilities we see
today, as Putin weaponises gas in Europe today, we have to work together. We
have to collaborate,” Granholm told the forum.
“We have to collaborate to speed the development of new technologies and share
novel innovations. We have to collaborate to spread them across the global
market. Most of all, we have to collaborate to diversify our supply chains and
protect them from outside threats.”
While the events of the 2022 Sydney Energy Summit may well disappear into
obscurity with time, the sentiment remains ever valid – and provides critical
context – as the second Trump presidency begins to play out."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
