The report “Escaping the Permanent Suez: Navigating the Geopolitics of European Decarbonization” by the Atlantic Council focuses on how energy and power are fundamentally related in history. It argues that Europe’s energy imports, and especially hydrocarbon addiction, has made its vulnerability worse. It assesses Europe’s geopolitical viability in this transition.
The outcome will depend on it overcoming a series of internal blockages that hamper its ability to act to resolve a number of challenging trade-offs. Domestic, foreign, and energy policies cannot be disentangled in the geopolitics of the transition to net zero. The European Union’s political system will have to overcome five fundamental internal challenges related to energy, fiscal, industrial, and foreign policy in order to navigate effectively.
It concludes that the EU will also have to look beyond its continent, and the stakes could not be greater. New policies are not only required for Europe’s economy but for its security if it wishes to avoid another permanent Suez and find a more stable future. Europe must navigate its complex transatlantic cooperation, which offers both opportunities and risks.
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