Clean energy is national security

As the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine approaches, it’s hard to overstate the war’s impact on the global energy transition. Energy prices have skyrocketed in the past year, while energy trends have moved in two opposing directions: on the one hand, 2022 saw record high coal use, with a 1.2 percent increase over the previous year, and on the other, renewables deployment has increased significantly, particularly in Europe. Looking ahead, the security imperative for the United States and Europe is to lean into clean energy development as a way to not only end dependence on petro dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin but also to avoid the worst security outcomes of continued carbon emissions. In other words, clean energy is key to both our current energy security and our future climate security. Clean energy enables energy independence while…

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