The article analyses, from a historical perspective, the geopolitics of energy in the framework of the capitalist system. The first section explains the birth of the geopolitics of energy (a geography of energy by state and the kind of energy relations between states), arguing that its birth is associated with fossil fuels and its goal is the safeguarding of supremacy through both territorial control of energy sources (or flows) and their commodification. After a brief review of the geopolitics of oil, the article ventures on what, in the present context of capitalism, the geopolitics of renewables might be. The main conclusion is that, because of the inherent features of renewables, at the end of the day the outcome will be the result of a political choice. The question is whether this choice will also be aimed at both grounding hegemony on international energy relations and funding the global unbalances of the system.

Becoming the first continent to be climatically neutral is currently both Europe’s main challenge and greatest opportunity. A new energy model, based on energy that is renewable, distributed and efficient, is crucial in order to accelerate the solution to the climate emergency. In this sense, on 25 February 2015, the European Commission set out a vision of an Energy Union with citizens at its core, where citizens take ownership of the energy transition, benefit from new technologies to reduce their bills and participate actively in the market. In June 2019, the European Union turned this public policy objective into an applicable regulation while the new EU directive on the electricity market set a new actor on the energy market: the citizen energy community. In this article, we analyse the meaning and significance of this key player in transforming the economy into a climate-neutral economy.

The Roadmap for Moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050 states that the objective of the European Union policy for Energy and Climate is to reduce its CO2 emissions to 80 % below 1990 levels. First, the article explains that decarbonisation within this framework does not only mean a transition towards renewable energy, but also changes in the use of ‘clean’ fossil fuels, in type and location. Secondly, it shows that the investment, infrastructures and treaties proposed to carry out this transformation will lead to the creation of bigger monopolies, and to the regionalization of the European energy space. Finally, we conclude by saying that if measures to offset the power of the monopolies are not applied, the outcome of these reforms will be the creation of energy baronies.