ICES Webinar | Electrostates vs Petrostates: The New Carbon Chasm
Hosted by the Institute for China-Europe Studies (ICES)
Date:Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Time: 16:30 -17:30 CET
Institute for China-Europe Studies (ICES) is pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar:
ICES Webinar | Electrostates vs Petrostates: The New Carbon Chasm.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement was adopted on 12 December 2015, UN Secretary-General António
Guterres warned on 28 October 2025 that the 1.5 °C target has been missed and that ‘devastating
consequences’ are now unavoidable. At the same time, the past decade has also seen a profound transformation
in global energy systems. The rise of the Electrostate paradigm, a concept popularised by the Financial
Times in May 2025, has been driven by the growth of renewables, widespread electrification, and
major advances in battery and hydrogen technologies. According to the International Energy Agency
(IEA) Electricity 2024 Executive Summary, China’s low-emissions generation alone is expected to
meet all additional electricity demand through 2026.
While China, Europe, and parts of Asia and Latin America have embraced this low-carbon trajectory,
several Petrostates, including the United States, continue to expand oil and gas production and
lag in electrification. By 2035, this divergence may form a new carbon chasm between low-carbon
regions thriving on competitive, zero-carbon systems and high-carbon regions facing stranded assets
and isolation.
This webinar will explore how this “carbon chasm” between Electrostates and Petrostates is reshaping
geopolitics, industry, and climate strategy for the decade ahead.