On the afternoon of April 4, 2023, the Center for West Asian and North African Studies at the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) of Tsinghua University hosted the second lecture of the “Western Asian and North African Studies from a Multidisciplinary Perspective” series for the 2022-2023 spring semester online. Themed “The WANA Region and European Energy Security after the Russia-Ukraine War,” this lecture was delivered by Professor Eckart Woertz, Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies (IMES) at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, and presided over by Duan Jiuzhou, Assistant Professor at the IIAS. Over 180 scholars and students from various universities and those interested in the topic attended the lecture.

During the lecture, Professor Woertz pointed it out that the ongoing energy earthquake is the result of the interaction of several major factors: finance, energy, globalization and division of labor, military power, and global governance, and in the epicenter are the United States/OECD, China, India, the Middle East and Russia. The pressure in the energy sector comes from underinvestment, considerable gaps in energy consumption standards, increasing demand, supply bottlenecks and global warming, but Professor Woertz’s judgement is that the ongoing momentum is unsustainable. Then, Professor Woertz outlined the four dominant trends in the future global energy demand structure: the decline in the importance of fossil fuels, the increase in the share of renewable energy, the further deepening of electrification, and the growth in the use of low hydrocarbons. Furthermore, Professor Woertz introduced the proven reserves of oil, natural gas, and coal in the world, as well as the mix of fuel consumption and per capita oil consumption in various regions, with a focus on Europe’s energy pipelines. At the end of the lecture, Professor Woertz shared his vision for the future of the global energy landscape.

During the Q&A session, Professor Woertz had a lively exchange with the audience and answered a number of questions raised by them, such as the role of Africa in the energy transition, Türkiye’s position in future energy transmission, and how can the geopolitical conditions in the Gulf lead to the European energy crisis.

Eckart Woertz is Professor of the University of Hamburg and Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. Previously he held positions at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), Sciences Po in Paris, Princeton University and the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. He earned a PhD in economics and minored in politics and Islamic studies. His research interests include the modern history of Iraq (1979-2003), political economy of the Middle East, energy and food security, and Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, and his research concerns various countries and regions such as the Gulf, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. He authored Oil for Food and published papers in The Middle East Journal, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, International Development Policy, etc.