Climate change is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. Building and linking the policies, technologies, financial systems and markets needed to achieve climate goals is key to addressing this challenge.

Coal, which for decades has served as a bulwark of the power sector in the United States and other countries, is experiencing a shift in response to concerns over the environment and changing market forces.

Energy access is central to reducing poverty. Energy is also critical to developing country efforts to move towards broader prosperity, which are significantly increasing their demand for energy.  Understanding better how to improve the deployment and use of energy for development can support not only stronger domestic growth, but also global sustainability.

Well-functioning energy markets are critical to the distribution of energy resources. Understanding how they work, how they can be improved, and how they are being impacted by the changes afoot in the energy sector is key to meeting energy and environmental goals. 

Energy security has long been a central objective of energy policy, yet remains poorly understood and defined. Assessing energy security risks, and how they are evolving, is key for both the public and private sector.

Energy has long been intimately tied to global geopolitics, power and foreign policies. The rapid pace of change in the energy sector is creating new sources of uncertainty and risk that require careful study and understanding.

Technological innovation has the potential to disrupt energy markets and influence energy policy around the world. It also plays an important role to improve access to energy sources in developing nations and to meet global environment goals.

The global gas market is undergoing a period of profound transformation as a result of new sources of supply, demand, changing trade patterns, and technological and policy shifts. The transition to a low-carbon economy and efforts to curb air pollution are also key policy aims that will impact the role of gas in the future energy mix.

Although it is a source of essentially carbon-free power, nuclear energy remains one of the most divisive components of the world’s primary energy mix. Its future rests largely on questions of cost, safety, waste management and proliferation-resistant technology.

Oil is the world’s most actively traded commodity, but forecasts vary as to whether it will start to wane in the decades to come. Understanding the changes that are sweeping through the oil industry and market today are key to understanding the outlook for economic growth, climate change, and geopolitical conflict.

Aging infrastructure, distributed generation, storage and new consumer technologies are precipitating reconfiguration of the power sector.

The rise of renewable energy resources is upending traditional energy markets, trade flows and presents a new set of challenges for policymakers, as well as new opportunities to address the challenge of climate change around the world.

The International Security Initiative at the Center on Global Energy Policy explores issues at the intersection of energy markets, policy and geopolitics.