James Adams Staff Picks - November 2021

My November artifacts took a more global scope, given the occurrence of global events like the COP26 meetings and the historic surge of oil prices. I am subscribed to weekly updates on energy news produced by the US Energy Information Administration, which sent out an explanation of the surge in oil prices that took place during November. I wanted to highlight the EIA’s analysis of the oil and gas price surge because it ran counter to another prominent discourse that blamed the Biden administration’s renewable energy and climate protection measures.

I also included two articles on the COP26 meetings, which included a historic agreement to reduce global carbon emissions. One article covered the process and outcomes of the meetings more straightforwardly. This article was useful for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the agreement. The other article took a more analytical approach, arguing that these meetings marked a discursive shift from discussing climate change in terms of environmental or ecological destruction to thinking about it in terms of a public health crisis. Together, these articles provide a decent understanding of where climate protection and renewable energy transition planning are at on a global scale.

Lastly, I also included an article that I encountered through my subscription to E&E News’ EnergyWire, discussing a conflict emerging around a recent surge in polysilicon prices, which is an important material for the construction of solar panels. The article was interesting for the way it exposed the entanglement of renewable energy politics and economics with longstanding issues of nationalism and xenophobia.