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.

In the past four decades, the centre of economic power has moved from industry to finance. Against this backdrop, the financialization of the water industry has made the hydrosocial cycle more complex, witnessing the emergence of new financial logics and financing instruments. This change has thoroughly transformed the relation between infrastructures and water companies, citizens, other water users and the environment. In this article, and based on previous work, I present a summary that debates around the financialization of the water cycle, through the example of the provision and development of financialized water infrastructures in London.

In the last three decades, network industries have experienced major changes the world over. It can be presumed that they will continue to do so, driven by technological and economic changes and also by the campaigns of interest groups framed by institutional and ideological parameters. In the European Union these changes have seen a growing degree of involvement at the community level, without reaching the point of creating European networks. Paradoxically, this could be beneficial for the resolution of certain dilemmas that arise in an electricity sector where a European demos is not well established, a factor that is problematic in other aspects. A consolidated European demos would require a consolidated European political arena, European public with European political parties and lobbyists working at a European level, and so on. The reason this lack of development of a European demos may be favourable to sectors such as electricity or communications is that it can stop public interventions in these sectors from being made into political issues. Although the European Union has already played an important role in increasing competition in these sectors, it may play a much more important role in a future that advances towards a market that is truly integrated, in which networks of a real European scope exist.

In the last three decades, network industries have experienced major changes the world over. It can be presumed that they will continue to do so, driven by technological and economic changes and also by the campaigns of interest groups framed by institutional and ideological parameters. In the European Union these changes have seen a growing degree of involvement at the community level, without reaching the point of creating European networks. Paradoxically, this could be beneficial for the resolution of certain dilemmas that arise in an electricity sector where a European demos is not well established, a factor that is problematic in other aspects. A consolidated European demos would require a consolidated European political arena, European public with European political parties and lobbyists working at a European level, and so on. The reason this lack of development of a European demos may be favourable to sectors such as electricity or communications is that it can stop public interventions in these sectors from being made into political issues. Although the European Union has already played an important role in increasing competition in these sectors, it may play a much more important role in a future that advances towards a market that is truly integrated, in which networks of a real European scope exist.