The Internationalism

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 14 From the series The world energy battle A weather phenomenon dubbed Dunkelflaute is causing havoc in Germany and pushing energy prices to two-decade highs ( Fortune, December 12th, 2024 ). Uncertainty in renewables and nuclear energy The German term Dunkelflaute combines the words Dunkel (dark) and Flaute (lull, absence of wind) and refers to a series of days when dense clouds descend over northern Europe. During a Dunkelflaute event, solar panels produce little energy and wind turbines slow to a halt. This weather phenomenon can occur two to ten times a year, usually in autumn and winter, and lasts 24 hours or more ( The New York Times, December 30th, 2024 ). A decade ago, it was not a problem: Europe obtained electricity from stable sources, namely nuclear power plants and fossil fuels. The situatio...

Internationalism No. 85, March 2026 Page 8 From the series The world energy battle Electricity is at the heart of modern economies and the demand for electricity is growing much faster than the overall consumption of energy in every scenario [ Electricity 2025 , International Energy Agency report]. Overproduction and power grid bottlenecks Electricity represents just 21% of energy consumption at a global level, but it is the main source for the sectors which represent more than 40% of the economy. A fundamental issue for the security of the electricity system is the modernisation of the power grid, which is currently lagging behind the expansion of production capacity. Although global investment in the production of electricity has increased by almost 70% since 2015, reaching $1,000 billion a year, annual spending on the grid has increased at less than half this rate, reaching $400 billion. This is also a European problem. Accordin...

Internationalism No. 84, February 2026 Page 14 From the series The world energy battle The UN Climate Conference COP30 fails to put an end to fossil fuels and sheds light on a cracked international order [ Euronews , November 24th]. A snapshot of the global energy economy A detailed analysis of the global energy situation, as shown in the tables, explains why fossil fuels are still necessary for global economic development. The sources for our analysis are World Bank data and the latest reports from the International Energy Agency (IEA): the "World Energy Outlook 2025" and "Electricity 2025" . For the comparison between gross domestic products (GDPs) from 2010-2024, we took as a reference the statistics, in constant 2015 dollars and at current exchange rates, published by the World Bank. We made this choice in order to have consistent data for the period. There are often large discrepancies between different statistics...