With Dr. Jeff Kucharski

This is an in-person event at the Sticky Wicket Pub.  Details and registration information will be provided soon.  The is a CIC members only event.

When: Tuesday, 5 September

Where: The Sticky Wicket Pub, the Strathcona Hotel, 919 Douglas Street

Time: 5 – 7:00 pm (doors open at 5 pm)

For our next Politics-in-the-Pub (PiP) we are delighted to welcome Dr. Jeff Kucharski. Jeff is a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC. Before retiring from the public service in 2012, he was an Assistant Deputy Minister in the Alberta Department of Energy responsible for international energy policy, strategic planning and intergovernmental relations.

As Jeff will discuss during his presentation, the world is in the midst of a “polycrisis” but there are three of particular concern: an energy crisis, a geopolitical crisis, and a climate crisis. Nowhere has the impact of these crises been felt more acutely than in Europe. The origin of the energy crisis did not begin with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the seeds were sown in policies and trends that were in place long before 2022. Although with heroic efforts Europe did manage to deal with the loss of Russian oil and gas supplies last winter, there remain significant hurdles to overcome even as the region looks toward the coming winter. While global LNG exports have expanded, they haven’t offset the loss of Russian pipeline supply to Europe. As a result an energy crisis still looms for Europe and during his talk Jeff will take a close look at the implications for Canada and the rest of the world as we continue to wrestle with energy, climate and geopolitical policy challenges