LONDON

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on Thursday opened a major Energy Security Summit in London, emphasizing the vital importance of international cooperation to ensure secure, affordable energy for all. 

Speaking to an audience of global energy leaders, Miliband underscored the economic and strategic benefits of shifting toward clean energy sources in the wake of global instability.

“There are huge benefits from countries cooperating on energy security,” Miliband said, urging collective action to address current energy challenges.

He framed the transition to clean energy as not only essential for the climate, but also for national and international stability. 

“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw family finances, business finances, public finances wrecked as fossil fuel prices rocketed on the global market,” he said. “As with many other countries, we’re a price taker, not a price maker in international fossil fuel markets.”

Miliband described clean energy advocates as the “optimists,” and laid out a vision of a future where homegrown, low-carbon power strengthens the UK’s resilience. 

“So our vision of low carbon power goes well beyond the climate imperative, important as that is. Homegrown, low carbon power is our nationally chosen route to energy security.”

He linked the UK’s energy agenda to broader international goals, arguing that “there can be no international security without energy security.”

Reflecting on the roots of global energy policy, Miliband recalled the creation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in response to the 1973 oil crisis. 

“[Since then] the challenges we face have changed, but I think the principle underpinning the IEA’s work, that countries need to collaborate to secure the uninterrupted supply of energy at an affordable price, remains the same,” he said.