Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Chris Badia recently attended the non-public Global Energy Security Talks 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. The focus of the three-day event was the development of sustainable solutions for economic and regional security, as well as the sharing of strategic insights on dynamics and trends that will inform future energy research.
The 2024 talks were an invite-only event, bringing together less than 100 individuals drawn proportionally from energy, security (including military), diplomacy, and academia. NATO Centres of Excellence for Energy Security, Maritime Security and Cooperative Cyber Defence participated by providing their expertise. By design, the gathering is an intellectual event with contributions from panelists and discussants to help form ideas aimed to obtain movement to reduce global reliance on fossil fuels while maintaining a cognizance that this is a decades-long ambition, disaggregating 21st century energy aspirations and actualities. Additionally, the conference contributes to the Pearl Global Futures Dialogue, an initiative aimed at sharing the best practices of statecraft on emerging global challenges.
The event and related discussions are driven by nine major supporting themes:
- Basic energy literacy for the broader policy community
- Technical limitations of renewable energy
- Existing energy infrastructure vulnerabilities
- Hybrid warfare and threats
- Cyber dimension of threats and protection
- Great Power Competition in the current environment
- Terrorism and Energy
- Natural Gas and other energy modalities during the long transition
- Need for proactive, integrative energy diplomacy among Western nations and allies
At current, NATO Allies operations are highly dependent on fossil fuel energy supply with a notable portion of that supply obtained from outside the Alliance. This energy dependence connects to several global considerations including global trade and lines of communication. NATO’s Strategic Concept 2022 guides the way to “enhance our energy security and invest in a stable and reliable energy supply, suppliers and sources.” To set this in motion, NATO is in the process of developing a new, achievable, and forward-looking operational energy concept aimed at increasing energy security and energy efficiency by diversification. At the top level, the goal is to accomplish this through strong partnership building and the usage of a combination of fossil and renewable energy sources.
Energy and security are critical topics facing the international community in the 21st century. The Global Security Energy Talks and the participation of leaders including General Badia are increasingly important for dialogue, cooperation, and future planning.