Energy Security in the Baltic Sea Region in the 21st Century
Summer School
Projektzeitraum: 2011–2011
5 September to 16 September 2011
Coordinated by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and in collaboration with Københavns Universitet, Turun Yliopisto, Tartu Ülikool, Vilnius University, Uniwersytet Gdansk, and Latvijas Universitate.
Topic
The summer school "Energy Security in the Baltic Sea Region in the 21st Century" is hosted by the Department for Northern European Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and organized together with the Universities of Copenhagen, Gdansk, Vilnius, Riga, Tartu und Turku.
Energy security in the sense of guaranteeing a stable and sufficient supply of energy has, long been an existential challenge, one which – with the economic rise of "newly industrialising countries" in the past years – has become increasingly urgent. The question thus emerges as to how the expanding world economy in the 21st century can be supplied with energy without international competition over dwindling resources leading to violent conflict.
At the same time, energy security on a global scale can no longer be reduced to the reliability of supply and the fairness of distribution. Since the global economy is primarily based on fossil source fuels, successfully meeting the rapidly rising demand for energy would result in grave consequences for the environment and the global climate. Thus, energy security in the future comprises not only the challenge of obtaining more energy, but also the task of developing environmentally sound and sustainable forms of energy production and investing in the development of new and much more economical machinery and vehicles.
The summer school at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin will deal with both aspects of global energy security from a European perspective. On the one hand, Europe is, apart from a few exceptions, a continent lacking in raw materials; for this reason the reliability of supply is, to a great degree, dependent on imports from third world countries. On the other hand, Europe is one of the world's regions with the highest consumption of energy; a result is, therefore, the special responsibility Europe holds in protecting the global environment. Europe as an example provides an excellent opportunity to study how the challenges of the 21st century – stable supply and ecological sustainability – can be brought into harmony with each other.
The international composition of students and lecturers encompasses old as well as new EU member states in order to strengthen cooperation and exchange between the Baltic Sea states on both levels – research and teaching.
Lectures, seminars, discussions and study trips include the following topics:
- Energy Security – Status and Perspectives in the Countries of Europe
- Energy Politics of the European Union
- Energy and Environment
- Europe's Far North as a Test Case for Energy Security in the 21st Century
- Sustainability as a Challenge for City Development, Consumers and Producers