Energy sovereignty: a strategic, economic and environmental challenge

What does energy sovereignty mean?  

From independence to a just ecological transition

Also referred to as ‘energy independence’, energy sovereignty describes the ability of a country to meet its energy needs independently of others. It is possible to calculate a country’s energy sovereignty on the basis of the types of energy it consumes and the location in which that energy is generated or sourced. 

A country that imports the majority of its energy sources will be regarded as having weak energy sovereignty, whilst a country that generates almost all its energy domestically will be regarded as having a high level of energy independence. Of course, geopolitical alliances between countries are extremely important for facilitating trade and ensuring ongoing access to energy, even in the event of dependency.

In addition to agreements that give them assured access to external sources, nation states must organise themselves to generate, transmit and distribute energy within their own borders. To do so, a reliance on specialist energy services partners is essential. VINCI and its subsidiaries are involved at every link in the energy value chain, from the construction of energy generation infrastructures to energy transmission and storage in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania and South-East Asia.

According to Réseau Action Climat, the French representative of the global Climate Action Network International network of more than 2,000 NGOs, energy sovereignty is defined as ‘the capacity to implement energy choices that ensure access for all and meet energy policy targets at the appropriate level. In order to achieve a ‘just ecological transition’, the organisation emphasises the need for energy sovereignty based on the reality of country limits, respect for the sovereignty of all peoples and assured universal access to clean and affordable energy.

Primary energy and renewables: key to energy independence 

Using the primary or renewable energy sources available within national borders significantly increases a country’s level of energy self-sufficiency. Primary energy sources are those occurring directly in the environment and without the involvement of human processing: fossil energy generated from the combustion of fossilised organic matter beneath the surface of the Earth, such as oil, gas or coal, and energy sources from renewable sources like hydropower, wind power, solar power and geothermal energy. Most of those countries now regarded as the most energy independent have focused on renewables.

Iceland is a perfect example. By generating 73% of its energy from hydropower and 21% from geothermal, it is able to meet almost all its energy needs. According to the TRG Datacenters ranking, this country is considered to be the most energy self-sufficient in the world.

Debates around the calculation of energy sovereignty 

However, the method used to calculate energy sovereignty is sometimes a matter of debate. Consequently, official calculations include nuclear power as a primary energy source. However, nuclear power generation requires a raw material – uranium – found only in certain parts of the world (Australia, the USA, Canada, South Africa and Russia). So is it therefore fair to consider a country like France, which is not a uranium producer, as sovereign in terms of its nuclear power generation, despite the substantial reserves it has?  

Similarly, it is important to stress that some renewables, including photovoltaic, require the extraction of rare earths available only in a limited number of countries. International Energy Agency (IEA) engineer Anthony Vautrin highlights 20 raw materials considered critical, including cobalt, lithium, nickel and silicon. Of these, 19 are produced primarily in China and 1 in Indonesia. Control over the production of these minerals could result in supply challenges for those regions that do not produce them.

Why has energy sovereignty become a key issue?  

Global demand for energy is rising sharply across all energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal, renewables and nuclear). No current forecasts suggest any reversal of this trend.

Global demand for energy is rising sharply across all energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal, renewables and nuclear). No current forecasts suggest any reversal of this trend. 

At the same time, demand for cooling is also increasing around the world: 80% of the world needs cooling for at least part of the year, but only 40% of countries currently have access to air conditioning.

In some, mainly industrialised, countries, data centre power consumption is skyrocketing with the boom in artificial intelligence, and is forecast to ‘more than double’ by 2030. The power demand of the largest data centres (usually in the USA, Europe and China) is equivalent to a city with a population of between 2 and 5 million. 

Achieving security of energy supply within national borders gives countries a strategic and political edge that ensures energy self-sufficiency and no need to depend on other countries to meet national demand.

Is total independence even possible?  

In today’s world, fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) still account for the majority of global energy consumption. Regardless of whether a country has these resources itself, phasing them out – whether to achieve energy independence or decarbonisation – will take a long time and demand a great deal of resources.

Oil is a fossil fuel formed from the decomposition of organic matter over millions of years. Its global availability is therefore finite, although it is difficult to estimate the remaining volume with any accuracy. It is still being extracted and transported around the world in increasing quantities, and the geopolitical issues that surround it make it a regular focus for conflict, from the oil crises of the 1970s or the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz in March 2026.      

Energy independence is one way of evading geopolitical uncertainties. For many countries, the solution is to move away from dependence on fossil fuels by turning increasingly to renewable energy sources, which are considered safer and cleaner, to meet their needs. 

Hydropower is stable, constant and one of the most reliable sources of energy, but it is not available everywhere. As an energy source, it has been harnessed and used for a very long time wherever it has been possible to do so. Finding new sources of hydropower is a complex challenge influenced by weather conditions, especially drought.

Wind and solar power generation can be installed in a wide variety of locations. Nevertheless, they are both intermittent and heavily dependent on weather conditions: to be effective 24/7, they must be accompanied by energy storage solutions or combined with other energy sources to ensure continuity of generation in the event of a shutdown or lower levels of generation. 

So independence is also clearly dependent on a diverse energy mix tailored to local circumstances so that nation states can avoid reliance on a single energy source which may become unavailable for geopolitical, weather or supply-related reasons.

Strategies for avoiding becoming (too) dependent on others  

Choosing the most appropriate energy mix is a highly strategic challenge for any country. The resources and characteristics specific to each country are clearly essential, so countries with powerful rivers – such as China, Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela which have the world’s largest dams – can rely on hydropower, while those subject to persistently strong winds can turn to wind power. 

Energy from wind, solar and geothermal sources is potentially available all over the world: in 2023, Norway even commissioned photovoltaic panels on the Svalbard archipelago, just 1,300 km from the North Pole. Having these energy sources also opens up the possibility of standalone systems that consumed their own energy in areas with no mains supply: to power an infrastructure or hospital in a region with no grid connection, for example.

Using storage to smooth out fluctuations in generation.

Storage is not a concept to be overlooked: it may involve storing the natural resource itself (oil, uranium, etc.) or storing surplus energy. Electrochemical, mechanical and thermal solutions, and the more recent development of chemical storage in the form of hydrogen, are all options worth exploring. Large-scale energy storage facilities with capacities ranging from a few tens of megawatts to several hundred are playing an increasingly central and critical role within power distribution grids. 

Commonly referred to by the acronym BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems), this market, which simply did not exist 15 years ago, is now valued at around $50 billion and is growing by 15-20% year on year.

Energy independence: a mater of political and financial choices 

The electrification of mobility currently appears to be the ideal solution for reducing CO₂ emissions and achieving greater energy autonomy. “Electrification simultaneously addresses the need for securing energy supplies and delivering the energy transition”, said VINCI Group Environment Director Isabelle Spiegel during the Smart Impact broadcast in April 2026. The good news is that the IEA expects this market to grow “at least 2.5 times faster than overall energy demand between now and 2030”. There is now a multiplicity of developments focused on facilitating this transition, particularly in mobility generally, as electric vehicles become increasingly popular. Nevertheless, this transition also requires very significant levels of funding. If governments want industries and individuals to change their habits, they must make the decision to support that migration.

Equally essential is the need to upgrade energy distribution grids in order to cope with these changes in behaviour.

Although each source of energy has its own benefits and drawbacks, transitioning to an energy mix containing a higher proportion of renewables appears to be a strategically important choice for ensuring greater security of supply, regardless of the international situation and climate change, and thereby safeguarding the energy independence of individual countries. However electrification must proceed at a regulated pace to ensure that national electricity distribution grids have the capacity to cope with the corresponding increases in energy generation. Combined with electrification, expanding the use of renewables will also help to reduce the goal shared by many countries to reduce global pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Sources :

VINCI: ‘Forging a sustainable world’ (Universal Registration Document 2025), p. 14  – https://www.vinci.com/publi/vinci/vinci-document-enregistrement-universel-2025.pdf  

Réseau Action Climat: ‘Energy sovereignty put to the test’ – https://reseauactionclimat.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/rac-synthese-v7-web.pdf

 LowCarbonPower: ‘Electricity in Iceland in 2025’ – https://lowcarbonpower.org/fr/region/Islande

 Le Grand Continent: ‘Seven of the ten most energy independent countries are in Europe’ – https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/12/11/parmi-les-dix-pays-les-plus-independants-en-matiere-denergie-sept-sont-europeens/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-308028

 Connaissance des énergies: ‘Is France on track for energy independence?’ – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/questions-et-reponses-energies/comment-est-calculee-lindependance-energetique-de-la-france

 Anthony Vautrin, International Energy Agency: Keynote: ‘Energy 2035: faster, more electric?’, Building Beyond 2026, conférence organisée par Leonard, Groupe VINCI – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G7z_KBDrb8

 Climate Clean Air Coalition: ‘Global Energy Review 2025’  – https://www.ccacoalition.org/fr/resources/global-energy-review-2025

AEI: “Electricity 2026” – https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2026/executive-summary

 Anthony Vautrin, AEI: Keynote « Énergies 2035 : plus vite, plus électrique ? », Building Beyond 2026, conférence organisée par Leonard, Groupe VINCI.

Connaissance des énergies: « Data centers et IA : la consommation d’électricité dédiée devrait plus que doubler d’ici 2030, selon l’AIE » – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/afp/data-centers-et-ia-la-consommation-delectricite-dediee-devrait-plus-que-doubler-dici-2030-selon-laie-250410

Anthony Vautrin, AEI: Keynote speech: ‘Energy 2035: faster, more electric?’, Building Beyond 2026 conference hosted by Leonard, VINCI Group.

Notre-environnement.gouv.fr: ‘Energy in France and around the world: two very different mixes’ – https://www.notre-environnement.gouv.fr/actualites/breves/article/l-energie-en-france-et-dans-le-monde-deux-bouquets-bien-differents?utm_source=chatgpt.com

 Connaissance des énergies: ‘Peak oil’ – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/fiche-pedagogique/pic-petrolier

 Connaissance des énergies : ‘Arctic: Solar panels go live on the Svalbard archipelago, 1,300 km from the North Pole’ – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/afp/arctique-des-panneaux-solaires-entrent-en-service-sur-larchipel-du-svalbard-1-300-km-du-pole-nord-230919

 Isabelle Spiegel : Interview from the ‘Electrification: the challenge of sovereignty’ broadcast streamed as part of Smart Impact – https://www.bsmart.fr/video/33220-smart-impact-16-avril-2026

 Connaissance des énergies : ‘The IEA takes stock of progress towards the electricity age’ – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/laie-fait-le-point-sur-les-progres-vers-une-ere-de-lelectricite