The Energy Transition

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course examines the key issues and challenges around the most profound transition in global energy use since the Industrial Revolution, amidst global conflicts and tensions, with energy itself at the heart of many of those tensions. The course will be of interest to those who wish to play a part in government, in multilateral institutions, in the various businesses that together are shaping the transition - or in the civil society groups who try to influence them.. Energy products are among the most traded global commodities. Energy is essential to modern life; yet many of its companies and products are often controversial. Governments regulate the industry with varying – and sometimes contradictory - objectives and varying success; they actively participate in supply chains and product markets; and own electricity, nuclear, renewable or fossil fuel companies. The course focuses on the global challenge of combining development energy security and environmental progress. It will approach this question through the lens of global participants’ concerns and priorities – particularly those of non-OECD participants. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the economic fundamentals of energy and the external environment in which the energy industry operates. The first part of the course explores the structure of today’s energy markets and how their future transition is forecast. It considers the fundamental forces driving the transition – actions to address climate change - and concerns about energy security and prices that create inevitable trade-offs. – as well as the practical factors limiting the speed at which the transition will occur. Finally, we consider the geopolitical implications of recent and prospective changes in energy supply chains, markets and financing. Financial modeling-based team exercises (using Excel) , structured investigations and classroom sessions explore the uncertainty the transition creates and how that translates into investment decisions, portfolio design, regulatory and tax approaches. The final part of the course will require participants to develop and effectively communicate plausible policy advice for government leaders.