The long march to energy independence: Part 1

The 1970s provide the most important lessons on creating a sustainable and secure energy system

October 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Arab Oil Embargo, which caused a rise in global oil prices that brought energy security to the forefront. Many policy decisions made by the governments of the US, Japan, and most EU countries have been guided since then by the need to protect against oil price shocks. These policies initially led to programmes that increased use of non-oil energy sources (primarily coal), encouraged conservation and created strategic crude oil inventories designed, theoretically, for use during supply shortages. Such reactive energy policies have had several unintended impacts. The most egregious has been climate change. Emissions of