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Scene Setter and Keynote Panelist: Energy Security – The Challenge of our Time

Jason Bordoff A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy and Co-Founding Dean, Columbia University Climate School

The APPEA Journal 63 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21475
Published: 2 June 2023

Abstract

Any hopes of a smooth transition to clean energy have been dashed by the events of the past 18 months. Volatile energy prices, pushed higher by the war in Ukraine, have placed energy security at the top of policymakers’ agenda, with a degree of urgency not seen in decades. But the common understanding of energy security was formed in the wake of the oil crises of the 1970s, and the existing policy toolkit for dealing with it is no longer adequate to meet the emerging security risks of the energy transition. The new drivers of energy insecurity include the return of great-power rivalry in an increasingly multipolar and fragmented international system, the efforts of many countries to diversify their supply chains, and the realities of climate change.

Addressing these new risks will require a new energy security toolkit, one based on four overriding principles: diversity of supply, system resilience, cross-border integration, and data transparency.

Ensuring a reliable and affordable supply of energy is vital to maintaining momentum for the energy transition. Thus, energy security is not a distraction from climate progress, but rather a key enabler of the transition to net zero.

To view the video, click on the link to the right.

Jason Bordoff is Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA, where he is a Professor of Professional Practice, and is also Co-Founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School. He is also a Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners.

He previously served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Staff of the National Security Council, and, prior to that, held senior policy positions on the White House’s National Economic Council and Council on Environmental Quality. One of the world’s leading energy and climate policy experts, Bordoff’s research and policy interests lie at the intersection of economics, energy, environment, and national security.

He is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, a frequent commentator on TV and radio, including NPR, Bloomberg, CNBC and BBC, has appeared on the Colbert Report, and has published in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, the Economist, and other leading outlets. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, a Trustee of The Nature Conservancy in New York, a board member of Winrock International and Foreign Policy 4 America, and serves on the Leadership Council for Sustainable Energy for All at the United Nations.

Earlier in his career, he was a scholar at the Brookings Institution, served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration, and was a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Bordoff graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also holds an MLitt degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.