30 de enero de 2015, Workshop on EU Energy Future

In the EU, organizations, groups and entities face the energy debate from diferent perspectives and approaches. Strategies developed may vary from advocacy in front of public bodies like International Finance Institutions (IFIs) or State, regional and local goverments, to addressing Transnational Corporations praxis intra and extra-EU, denouncing the rise of the energy poverty problem or visibilizing the impact of large infrastructure projects. Frecuently, these differences are related to different historical facts that coexist in the EU. Mainly between Old Member States and the EU-13, but also among countries under austerity measures.

This workshop then, is a dialogue proposal between these different views, taking into account the Social Metabolism (SM). With the term social metabolism we are referring to the way in which human societies organise the growing exchange of energy and materials with the surrounding environment. The SM will be the driving force to approach the debate in two different dimensions of the EU Energy action. In the one hand the internal dimension: energy governance, creation of internal markets, etc… In the other hand the external dimension: geopolítics and energy grabbing. Likewise, transversal dynamics like financialization also influence/drive both dimensions.

The first part will consist in short presentations and open discussions. So, this will be the necessary background for the collective work at the second stage: EU energy future scenarios. Future scenarios are plausible descriptions of how the future might unfold based on a coherent set of assumptions about key elements and drivers of change.