Event Summary
European efforts to drive sustainable energy use while maintaining a secure and affordable supply—a difficult balance in the best of times—have only grown harder in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the changing U.S. posture in Europe, and other global developments. At this event, Constanze Stelzenmüller of the Brookings Institution Center on the United States and Europe and Samantha Gross of the Brookings Energy Security and Climate Initiative explored these vexing issues in a conversation moderated by Meghan O'Sullivan, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project.
This already-timely discussion occurred on the day of a historic blackout in Portugal and Spain, a shock that brought concerns over Europe's energy security sharply to the fore. Shedding light on the outage in his opening remarks was Gonçalo Saraiva Matias, Chairman of the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, a leading Portuguese foundation that is partnering with the Brookings Institution for a project on “Europe’s Energy Transition: Balancing the Trilemma."
The discussion on Europe's energy security advanced the Belfer Center's scholarship and public engagement on the geopolitics of energy and on the dynamics affecting Europe in today's evolving international order.
