Are Stranded Assets Still Stranded? The Effect of Energy-Security Debates on Redundant Infrastructure

The Berlin Seminar on Energy and Climate Policy is a joint seminar series of several research institutes at the intersection of the topics of energy and climate policy and financial economics. The upcoming iteration focuses on stranded assets in energy infrastructure in the context of energy security discourses.

Until the Russian war in Ukraine and its strong effects on the re-organisation of energy flows in Europe, it seemed a consensus that fossil assets will become stranded within the coming decades due to ever more stringent climate policy. Therefore, investments in such assets should be avoided as early as possible. With the newly awakened focus on energy security, the insurance aspect of redundant infrastructure capacities has been emphasized. This has lead to a temporary reevaluation of already obsolete assets and is even leading to the construction of specific additional fossil infrastructure such as LNG terminals.

Given that these fossil capacities will ultimately still become stranded as Europe moves to climate neutrality, we want to elaborate how European countries can avoid creating new path dependencies and ensure that the role of the new fossil infrastructure is limited to the insurance of security of supply.

Further information about the event can be found here.

Sign-up: To register, please confirm your participation, using this link until Tuesday, May 3rd, so that we can judge the catering needs. Due to the current Covid-restrictions we have to limit participation to 50 participants. We will confirm your participation after the registration deadline closes. A lunch buffet will be available during the event.