Pulitzer Prize-winning author and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin offers a revelatory new account of how energy revolutions, climate battles, and geopolitics are mapping our future in this, his new book. The world is being shaken by the collision of energy, climate change, and the clashing power of nations in a time of global crisis. The "shale revolution" in oil and gas--made possible by fracking technology, but not without controversy--has transformed the American economy, ending the "era of shortage", but introducing a turbulent new era. Almost overnight, the United States has become the world's number one energy powerhouse--and, during the coronavirus crisis, brokered a tense truce between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Yet concern about energy's role in climate change is challenging our economy and way of life, accelerating a second energy revolution in the search for a low carbon future. All of this has been made starker and urgent by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic Dark Age that it has wrought.

The chessboard of world politics has been upended. A new cold war is emerging with China; and rivalries grow more dangerous with Russia, which is pivoting east toward Beijing. Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping are converging both on energy and on challenging American leadership, as China projects its power and influence in all directions. The South China Sea, claimed by China and the world's most critical trade route, could become the arena where the United States and China collide directly. The map of the Middle East, which was laid down after World War I, is being challenged by jihadists, revolutionary Iran, ethnic and religious clashes, and restive populations. But the region has also been shocked by the two recent oil price collapses--one from the rise of shale, the other the coronavirus--and by the very question of oil's future in the rest of this century.

A master storyteller and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin takes the reader on an utterly riveting and timely journey across the world's "new map". He illuminates the great energy and geopolitical questions on the eve of the historic 2020 Presidential election and the profound challenges that lie ahead. This is a fascinating, accessible and topical book which ruminates on some of the most pressing political, environmental, social and economic issues of our time. Yergin analyses the past few years and uses extrapolation to predict our energy future whilst correcting the shameless optimism promoted by governments and other entities who claim our energy future to be bright. A comprehensive look at the topographical evolution with regard to energy supply that has occurred over the past decade, Yergin, once again, has produced an eminently readable and extensively researched page-turner. Many thanks to Allen Lane for an ARC.

Daniel Yergin is the author of previous best sellers, including The Prize (a history of oil companies in a geopolitical context, and The Commanding Heights (a global study of the rise of market liberalism and th decline of state socialism in the 70s and 80s). In The Map he takes a similar global view as he explores the way innovation in energy supply and distribution in the last decade or so (roughly 2010 to 2020) have transformed the geopolitical scene. In charting this story Yergin’s perspective is that of an economic liberal - competition in the supply (here of energy) has empowered consumers, fostering the development of trade, which, in turn, makes nations interdependent. Market liberalisation is the path to peace, prosperity and a low-carbon future (though he does admit innovation in renewables is ultimately driven by government incentives, mandates, and subsidies).

Yergin starts with the development of shale oil (and gas) at the point when the world was thinking oil stocks were beginning to pass their peak. Liquid natural gas immediately helped the US recover from the 2008 financial crisis and helped China drive further economic growth. Shale gas sources have been found in the US, Russia, China, off Israel, and lots of other areas. In liquid form gas can be shipped around the world or transported through pipelines and links have been forged between supplier- and consumer-nations.. This new ready access to energy has created competition and flexibility in the markets. Nations have had to collaborate and this has helped shift the geopolitical balance. Russia is now friendly with China and Saudi Arabia; America and China are 'interdependent'., and so on - the impacts have been fairly sudden and dramatic.

Yergin, a natural storyteller, is great at explaining the moments of technical innovation and their subsequent development: striking shale oil, developing electric cars, the ride-hailing revolution (cars as services, not products). But he is also great at mixing geopolitical analysis with the necessary historical/contemporary background in various regions of the globe. His accounts of how energy innovation is changing the fate and fortunes of various nations are brief but detailed, insightful, and fascinating. He covers, for example, Russia, China, the South China Sea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Mexico (Yergin sure is no fan of socialism!), as well as nations increasingly squeezed in-between the big players, like Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Germany.

There is good coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic (up to June 2020, only a few months ago!) and the book ends by charting the various difficulties the world faces ahead (pandemic-related debt, a shift to renewables with loss of jobs and income, and rising populism and trade tariffs). Historic investment in oil and gas means these polluting energies still have a big future, especially in the developing world. Solar and wind are intermittent sources and until storage and distribution methods are developed - and applied in poor and rich countries alike - then our plans for a low-carbon future look a bit optimistic.

Oh by the way, if you are wondering about the slightly obscure title, Yergin notes, in the final chapter (ch.46), that by ‘map’ he means ‘topography’ (setting out how the world currently acquires and distributes its energy and how the various nations are positioned in relation to this valuable and essential commodity), but also the future direction and route (how things might develop and shake-out in the future). This is a fair indication of the dual focus this book provides: analysis and forecasting. I have always enjoyed Yergin’s books and this is up there with The Prize and The Commanding Heights. as a wide-ranging, eye-opening, page-turner. I have no hesitation in recommending this one.

Advanced Review Copy supplied by NetGalley for an impartial review.