Lessons from Europe's energy past for Europe's future - lecture by prof. Helen Thompson
European SDU Lecture by professor Helen Thompson, Cambridge University
On September 13th, Helen Thompson was the first speaker to feature in Think Tank EUROPA's and SDU's new collaborative series "European SDU Lectures". The talk centered around her new book “Disorder – Hard Times in the 21st Century”, which was shortlisted for Financial Times’ Best Business Book of the Year in 2022. The book examines how modern societies’ ever-growing demand for fossil fuel energy has played a substantial role in the complex interplay between geopolitics, the global economy, western democracies and the increasing instability of the global political system today.
Some of the main points that Professor Thompson highlighted during the talk were:
- While energy has been an important driver for European integration, this has not resulted in energy commonality between the European member states. A green and electrifying transition - or revolution - has the potential to create a more regional interconnectedness, improving the EU’s robustness and autonomy.
- Nonetheless, the main challenge for the EU in fostering the green transition lies in the highly concentrated supply chains of the essential raw materials, which make the EU dependent on China and other states.
- Europe must shift the green narrative and instead of justifying the green transition from a point of econonmic prosperity to a point of securing resilient energy. European states needs to view renewable energy sources in geopolitic strategic terms and not merely in economic terms.
About Helen Thompson:
Helen Thompson is Professor of International Political Economy. She has been at Cambridge University since 1994. Her current research concentrates on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century. She co-hosts the These Times podcast on politics and writes regularly in the British and international media on energy and geopolitics.
Programme:
- 10.30-10.40: Welcome by Peter Møllgaard, Dean at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, SDU (University of Southern Denmark) & Welcome by Lykke Friis, Director, Think Tank Europa
- 10.40-11.30: Lecture by Helen Thompson, Professor, University of Cambridge
- 11.30-11.50: Q&A
- 11.50-12.00: Closing remarks
Moderated by Peter Møllgaard, Dean at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, SDU (University of Southern Denmark)
