Welcome to the latest issue of Future Power Technology.

In this issue, we look back at COP27, the biggest energy summit of the year, and ask what the world’s leaders are doing to address environmental damage that is pushing parts of the world to breaking point. After the frustrations around COP26 for the lack of commitments to removing coal from the world’s energy mix, this year’s event followed a similar pattern, with little being put into place to protect the world’s most vulnerable environments. 

This is not to say that the event was entirely without merit, however. The establishment of a loss and damages fund is an important step in minimising the financial burden on poorer nations, who are moving away from fossil fuels for the sake of the environment, when committing to coal, oil and gas would be of financial benefit.

Elsewhere, we go around the world to consider how the Ukraine war could affect power sectors. Russia’s conquest of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine brings the danger of nuclear destruction to a war that is already a humanitarian crisis, while Moldova’s reliance on Russian power has left it stranded between its allies in the west and its power supplier in the east.

For all this and more, read on.

JP Casey, editor