Abstract
This chapter explores the foreseeable repercussions of South East Europe (SEE) energy transition in terms of regional sustainability, resilience, vulnerability, and energy security. It examines enhancement of the natural gas pipelines in the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor, its broad ramifications for the SEE, as well as consequences for regional integration in energy security in the area. The chapter argues that natural gas will be relevant within the decarbonization pathway, coal-to-renewables transition, and energy security over the full transition toward a low-carbon economy. A moderate share of natural gas in the energy mix contributes to the robustness of the decarbonization strategy over the reduction of the growing electricity intermittency risk that emanates from the growing share of the renewables in the energy mix. Regardless of the undertaken landscape and energy mix, the decarbonization targets should not be subject to trade-offs with purely economic targets in the face of the short- to middle-term economic turmoils.
Keywords
- Energy security
- Energy transition
- Natural gas
- South East Europe
- Decarbonization
- Energy economics
- Energy futures
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the conference conveners, Matúš Mišík and Veronika Oravcová, for their valuable feedback and contributions, and Margarita M. Balmaceda, Csaba Weiner, Danijel Crnčec, Tomas Janeliūnas, Farid Karimi, Zsolt Gál, Martin Jirušek, Mariëlle Feenstra, and all conference participants for insightful comments that improved the chapter.
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Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. (2021). Energy Security Pathways in South East Europe: Diversification of the Natural Gas Supplies, Energy Transition, and Energy Futures. In: Mišík, M., Oravcová, V. (eds) From Economic to Energy Transition. Energy, Climate and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55085-1_17
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