The big picture of the issue of energy is actually a mosaic. As we progress from the big picture to local pieces, major constraints directly determining energy-related decisions are revealed. Humanity is struggling globally in order to find a sustainable way of ensuring energy supply. To understand and overcome the obstacles at hand, the
aspects of climate change-related survival, supply security in connection with geopolitics, economics, and culture have to be taken into consideration. Is there a right balance between these various aspects? Can this puzzle be solved? Will single efforts imply global changes?
In this issue, we first highlight global figures, facts, and tendencies, and then, based on them, we are focusing on the most relevant challenges each country has to face, as well as global processes and the various connections between these elements. As an environmental engineer, I am especially grateful for the help that I have received from my colleagues at the Antall József Knowledge Centre — among them historians, an economist, an American
studies major and few international relations and international laws experts. Thanks to them we are able to present this complicated topic from a multitude of perspectives.
