Energy in a Globalised World - Energy and Climate: How to Achieve a Successful Energy Transition - page 7

exporting countries alongside Canada, Norway, Algeria, the Netherlands
and Indonesia.
However, long distance transport of natural gas through gas pipelines
or as liquefied natural gas (LNG) 3 relies on large-scale infrastructures
and therefore major investments. The mutual dependency between
supplier and consumer, induced by the existence of gas transport
infrastructures, represents a safety factor. The recent tensions between
Russia and the European Union, due in particular to its conflict with
Ukraine, have nevertheless demonstrated the risks inherent in excessive
dependency on a dominant supplier.
The distribution of coal reserves is more favourable to the large
consumer countries. Due to their abundance, coal has not suffered the
tensions and price rises inflicted on oil and natural gas. This explains the
strong come-back of coal observed over recent years.
This come-back nevertheless involves major environmental risks,
especially regarding CO 2 emissions 4 , as discussed in Chapter 7.
Energy and globalisation of the economy
Access to ever-increasing quantities of oil has favoured the multiplication
of exchanges between the various parts of the world, whether for people
with the sharp increase in air travel, or goods with the development of
road and air freight.
This development of transport and exchanges, combined with the
tremendous progress made in the field of telecommunications, has been
a major factor in globalisation of the economy.
The relatively low cost of energy has closed the gap between the
continents and transformed the world into the 'global village' we now
know. In this context, European consumers eat fruit and vegetables in
winter grown in the southern hemisphere (from Australia, New Zealand
and Chile).
The search for lowest-cost production sites has accelerated the devel-
opment of goods transport and led to a sharp rise in energy consumption
by emerging countries.
Simultaneously, liberalisation of the economy and deregulation of the
energy sector in most industrialised countries have created the conditions
3 LNG is transported by tankers in liquid phase at low temperature.
4 Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is emitted during combustion. The fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas,
represent the main human sources of CO 2 emissions.