Energy: a burning issue for foreign policy

UK Ambassador to the United States Sir David Manning addresses the 2006 Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecture

The scarcity of energy supplies and the energy imbalance between nations is a threat to our prosperity and national security. As resources contract, oil-hungry economies will compete for dwindling supplies of hydrocarbons. Competition for fossil fuels will increase. As Sen. Dick Lugar, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently said “Our critical international security goals, including countering nuclear weapons proliferation, supporting new democracies, and promoting sustainable development are at risk because of over-dependence on fossil fuels.”

So, I want to turn now to the factors that shape our energy security: assess how these are re-defining foreign policy in the 21st Century; and suggest what we might do.

..This is not a problem that can wait ten years. As these problems become ever more pressing and serious, we need the machinery to understand and react to them, to share knowledge and implement solutions.

If we get these decisions right we open up the prospect of a new technological revolution that will create opportunities and transform our world in ways just as profound as the first industrial revolution. If we get them wrong, we face the prospect of competition and conflict over resources, and destabilizing – perhaps destroying – the environment that we depend on.

Energy Bulletin