The Impact of Emerging Economies on Global Energy and the Environment

Book excerpt: Changing patterns of energy production and consumption are transforming the geopolitics of the global system. The BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (not discussed in this volume), a loose conglomeration of emerging powers, are part of the change as are Western powers. Variations in the energy policies of the Americas, especially the United States and Canada, are altering existing dynamics. Both states are increasing energy production and are projected to become energy independent in the very near future. The BRICS themselves wield much energy power as well. Specifically, Russia’s oil policy and China’s coal policy are creating for the world a new infrastructure within which middle and weaker countries may consider as the future. This edited volume summarizes our analysis with particular emphasis on the rapidly changing role of the BRICS in the world’s energy system. In this collection, energy experts and international relations analysts examine production and consumption of states, the exportation and importation of energy, and alternative strategies for maintaining the international order or changing the international order.