Energy's Role in National Security

Abstract

The relationship between energy security and national security is indisputable. We are seeing growth in energy use worldwide and for electricity, like we have not seen in decades. The global energy review found that global energy demand grew by 2.2 percent last year, which was faster than the average annual increase of 1.3 percent over the previous 10 years.¹ Electricity demand saw the most significant growth at 4.3 percent, well above the 3.2 percent growth in global gross domestic product (GDP). Electricity demand growth is being driven by global record temperatures, electrification of buildings, transportation, and industries, and digitalization of business operations and use of machine learning and acritical intelligence (AI) to support business operations. The growth in new energy supplies is also growing to meet this demand. Renewable energy sources, for example, accounted for the largest share of the growth in global energy supply (38 percent), followed by natural gas (28 percent), coal (15 percent), oil (11 percent) and nuclear (8 percent).