Democratizing Sustainable Energy Technology through Collaborative International Spaces

Abstract

Reliance on fossil fuels has exacerbated climate change and created geopolitical instability. As seen recently with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, key players in the energy sector often exert outsized influence on sovereign states and world markets. The ongoing sustainable energy transition provides an opportunity to change the geopolitical influence of these states while limiting global warming. Countries have an opportunity to use diplomacy to increase the diffusion of renewable energy technologies, particularly to developing countries. This can both reduce the inflated influence of fossil fuel producing states on the global stage and achieve a net zero (NZ) world. In anticipation of this latter transition—and to promote growth in energy diplomacy—we propose two UN initiatives: a multilateral energy research and storage collaborative, the World Institute for Energy Storage (WIES), and the biennial International Renewable Energy Conference & Expo (IRECE).