The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
The Paris climate goals commit the world to get to net zero. But what will the global energy system in net zero look like? Will renewables be the dominant source of energy? Will there be any role for oil and natural gas? How important will emerging technologies and energy carriers, such as CCUS and hydrogen, be? This talk will use the scenarios included in the 2019 IPCC report to try to get a sense of what we do (and don’t) know about the global energy system in net zero.