Geopolitics of the Transition to Clean Energy and Global Economic Decarbonization

Though it is widely accepted that, based on greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuels are an environmental nightmare and that they are the main reason behind the planet’s rising temperature and other adverse impacts on climatic conditions, eliminating fossil fuels remains problematic. The main challenge is the integrated nature of fossil fuels with industry and modern lifestyles, especially in industrialised nations. Equally, challenging is the economic and industrial dependence on coal, oil, and gas for energy and revenue by several developing countries. These factors make plans to transition to cleaner sources of energy, as envisioned at the COPs and through NDCs, both costly and difficult to execute.