Witness the opening remarks of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer: ‘In a sense we’re here for one simple reason: the world has changed. From defence to national security, which has been much discussed, to the economy and trade, old assumptions have fallen away. We are living in an era of global instability, which is felt by working people as an age of local insecurity.’

‘Energy security is right at the heart of this. Every family and business across the UK has paid the price for Russia weaponising energy.’

From the comments of Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko to Finnish Climate Minister Sari Multala and IEA Secretary General Fatih Birol, there was a common acknowledgment of the risks posed by the prime aggressor of Europe in the last decade. The roster of 60 countries represented did not feature a speaker from Russia.

No surprise the EU made the same point, in an even starker way. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that next month the Commission will set out a roadmap to phase out all imports of Russian fossil fuel. ‘No longer will we rely on a hostile power for our energy supply,’ she said. Though this eagerly anticipated embargo has taken the EU27 four years.

After criticising Russia, Starmer broadened his point, blaming the UK's reliance on oil and gas markets for upheaval at home. ‘When it comes to energy, we are also paying the price for overexposure for many years to the roller coaster of international fossil fuel markets, leaving economy – and therefore people’s household budgets – vulnerable to the whims of dictators like Putin, to price spikes and to volatility that is beyond our control. Since the 1970s, half of the UK’s recessions have been caused by fossil fuel shocks, and that’s true for many of the other nations represented here this afternoon.’

UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband went on to explain the government’s alternative. He said: ‘Our vision of low-carbon power goes well beyond the climate imperative – important as that is. Homegrown low-carbon power is our nationally-chosen route to energy security. Solar power, wind power, tidal, geothermal, nuclear power all serve essential parts of the low-carbon opportunity… ours is a hard-headed approach to the role of low-carbon power as a route to energy security.’

However, support for net zero seemed more muted than at other events. Both Starmer and Miliband reiterated that oil and gas will continue to play a role in the UK’s energy mix. While representatives of some nations – such as Spain and Colombia – sought to play up their energy transition ambitions, others, such as Iraq, reminded the conference of oil and gas in electricity generation (though Hayyan Abdel-Ghani, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, also mentioned a 12 GW national plan for solar power, whose first 240 MW capacity farm was launched this year).

What were the main messages? 
At the IEA, Birol, who has previously been an outspoken critic of the environmental record of the oil and gas industry, was also more diplomatic. The three golden rules for energy security which he presented formed a kind of thematic backbone to the entire event.

First was diversification of energy sources. ‘We should not put all our eggs in one basket, because the geopolitical situation will change.’ Second was predictability. ‘The energy sector is different from others. It requires huge investments with projects that have long lead times. If policies are not predictable, and change from one day to another, that creates uncertainty, which increases the cost of capital’. Third is cooperation. ‘Every country has its own pathway for energy, based on its economy, natural resources and political context. We should understand and respect it. However, no country, small or big, is an energy island. We are interconnected and interdependent in many ways. Through energy prices: which are international. Through emissions: which are global. Through technical innovation: which is global. Lasting solutions to energy security in my view come through cooperation.’

That message was underlined by a statement of welcome from King Charles III, as relayed by Ed Miliband. It read: ‘As we all navigate the transition to cleaner energy for our planet and energy security for our systems, summits such as these are of vital importance in facilitating shared learnings between nations, particularly those in the Global South and across the Commonwealth. Events over recent years have shown that when well-managed, the transition to more sustainable energy sources in itself leads to more resilient and secure energy systems. While each country will follow its individual path, there are many shared challenges and opportunities on which we can work together as partners.’

The other partners of the event, which welcomed some 50 business leaders (alongside those of some civil society groups and NGOs), were its sponsors – the utilities Iberdrola/Scottish Power and SSE, UK infrastructure organisation National Grid and uranium enrichment organisation URENCO.

A comment perhaps typical from the private sector came from Anders Opedal, CEO of Nowegian energy major Equinor, calling for pragmatism. ‘In the UK, we invest one dollar in oil and gas, and two dollars in renewables and CCS and gas to power. But I do think that this dollar of investment in oil and gas is also needed, both in Europe and the UK, to ensure that we have a balanced energy position.’

What did the US say? 
One of the starkest voices at the event was that of Tommy Joyce, Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, who represented the new US administration. He said: ‘The United States is blessed with abundant energy resources. We are the top oil, gas and nuclear producer in the world, or the fourth largest coal producer. And since 2023 we’ve been the largest exporter of LNG. Despite this, some want to regulate every form of energy besides so-called renewables completely out of existence, and in favour of the net zero agenda. We oppose these harmful and dangerous policies. This is not energy security, and we know exactly where it leads… trading one form of dependency for another, putting abstract mission goals in the interests of our adversaries first and the security of our people last.’

He was unusual in another way by being one of the only speakers to clearly call out the influence of the other geopolitical superpower China (which also did not speak at the event). He said: ‘A typical offshore wind turbine requires four tonnes of a permanent magnet made with rare earth materials. China, the supplier of nearly all of them, has restricted their sale. There are no wind turbines without concessions to, or coercions from, China.’

Others were more subtle. Birol of the IEA said: ‘When we look at this, at where the critical minerals are produced, where they are refined and manufactured, there is a huge concentration. This is something that we think is risky, wherever that concentration is.’ He later made an unfavourable comparison between the extreme traceability of oil and gas, which are tracked 24/7 from field to refinery and across the seas, with the opaque supply chains of key energy transition materials like lithium, used in lithium-ion batteries.

Von der Leyen’s remarks also touched on the importance of critical materials, whose need is ‘all the more important with looming trade restrictions and export bans. They are the building blocks of the clean energy transition.’ She pointed to the signing of 10 strategic raw materials agreements, including a recent €4.4bn deal with South Africa. (She also mentioned EU investments elsewhere on the continent, including the Zambia-Tanzania Interconnector and the Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign.)

What about voices from the Global South? 
The CEO of embattled South African electricity utility Eskom, who offered an optimistic note for developments there, was just one of the representatives from countries in the Global South who had a platform.

On the topic of mining, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Secretary General, Commonwealth of Nations, and a native of Ghana, said: ‘When consumer countries and the private sector go into countries to provide energy security, we need to ensure they don’t leave without providing development. We see a lot of cases where minerals are extracted and no development is provided for these countries, so they remain insecure.’

She called for a shared approach ‘to close the access gap so that energy security is not a privilege for some, but a guarantee for all. I call this inclusive resilience, and it’s a principle that guides us in building a safer, cleaner and fairer energy future for everybody.’

Lisa Cummins, Barbados’ Minister of Energy and Business Development, said: ‘For Barbados, which is a small island and a developing economy, energy security looks different than for others. We are on the receiving end of fossil fuel generation, and on the front line of sea level rises.’

Birol at the IEA reminded the conference that another important aspect of energy security, sometimes overlooked, is the insecurity of the 750 million people worldwide lacking access to electricity, and 2 billion lacking access to clean cooking, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries.

On that topic, EC Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen acknowledged the leadership of the IEA on the issue, and added that tackling it can be done for relatively little money compared to other emissions-abatement activities. It would bring huge health benefits to the people affected – such as the women who have to spend hours every day gathering wood for fuel. He noted that it accounts for a greater quantity of emissions than the aviation sector.

Bringing together these many strands was Malaysian Energy Minister YAB Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah Bin Haji Yusof. He said: ‘We need a more holistic, future-proof approach [to energy security]. We need to look to resilience, to sustainability, to regional interdependence. Those will be the core pillars. We also need a forward-looking definition of energy security, including access [to electricity], cyber resilience and vulnerable groups – particularly those in rural areas.’

• Further reading: ‘Energy security concept needs to evolve in the renewables era’. The transition away from fossil fuels to renewables requires a new interpretation of the concept of energy security, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
• Find out how Poland is ramping up offshore wind as energy security dominates the political agenda.