Two types of media are available to you for this course:

• online learning sessions with soundtrack (called Diapason, which stands for Diaporamas Pédagogiques Animés et Sonorisés in French), which introduce the main concepts. You can access them from this page ;

• the book Introduction to global energy issues, whose content goes far beyond all that you should know, but which will allow you to deepening matters if you wish, and will serve as a reference during the early years of your career.

Depending on your preferences, so you can:

• either, as it is recommended, start by taking the course online and use the book as a complement and further reference ;

• or work directly from the book, which reads without difficulty.

In this course, you will be led to use different units to quantify the energies involved.

To study the consumption and production of energy at the level of a country, the units used are rarely the Joule, which is he official unit of the International System (SI), or the calorie or the British thermal unit or BTU.

Due to the importance of oil in the energy balance of many countries, the amount of energy is frequently expressed as an oil equivalent: tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), kilograms of oil equivalent (koe), or barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Other units are also used. This depends on the energy sources considered and their characteristics, which often vary a lot depending on the case.

To help you make the necessary conversions, this portal page provides you with various information about energy units and conversion factors.

Energy is a vast field that can be approached from multiple angles. The approach proposed here is to start by providing the reader with technical bases on energy, and thus energy supply, before considering the demand, that is to say, its socio- and macro-economic dimensions, then addressing global issues related to energy, and finally the main issues that arise in this area today.

The pedagogy that we recommend is divided into three main steps:

• the acquisition of concepts made by ​​working on the nine Diapason sessions offered. They represent only a small of what is covered in the book, but enough so that students learn basic notions ;

• a personal practice by students, for them to actually use the knowledge acquired during the preceding step. For example, the analysis of the energy situation of a country, carried out by small groups of students (typically four to a group), with the aim of giving an oral presentation to their peers and delivering a small written report, typically ten or twenty pages long. Ideally of course, one of the students in the group would be a citizen of the studied country ;

• in-depth analyses can then be performed by the students according to their interests

If the duration of the course is not sufficient, the last step may be optional for students particularly motivated by the subjects. These rein-depth analyses are also commonly made ​​in the early years of active life of alumni, when they are faced with real problems.

Nine Diapason sessions were prepared to present the basic notions :

• GEI1 Sectors introduces the main energy sectors (oil, natural gas, coal, synthetic hydrocarbons, nuclear power, renewable energy), i.e. how the main sources of energy can be exploited;

• GEI2 Economic and energy indicators presents the main macroeconomic and energy indicators that are commonly used to assess the energy situation of the country. The concepts that are introduced there will be used consistently in other chapters; it is thus essential to understand well their definitions and limitations ;

• GEI3 World energy situation mainly deals with global past and present energy consumption;

• GEI4 Energy in the developing countries presents specific problems faced by developing countries;

• GEI5 Reserves and resources introduces the definitions of these two terms which are used in the energy field with meanings that differ quite significantly from common sense, which inevitably leads to confusion and misinterpretation;

• GEI6 Energy markets focuses on international energy trade, distinguishing between oil, natural gas and coal, which are governed by different logics;

• GEI7 Environmental issues discusses briefly the relationship of energy to the environment;

• GEI8 Changing technology presents some dramatic technological changes in the energy sector in recent decades ;

• GEI9 Objectives and impact of energy policies illustrates how the policies of the States have influenced geopolitical issues.

The logical sequence of Diapason sessions is as follows:

• session GEI1 Sectors must be studied before others by students who do not have prior knowledge of the subject;

• session GEI2 Economic and energy indicators;

• sessions GEI3 to GEI8 can be studied in any order ;

• session GEI9 Objectives and impact of energy policies draws on the knowledge presented in other sessions. It is therefore recommended to study at last.

Note that even if sessions GEI7 Environmental issues and GEI8 Changing technology are directly follow session GEI1 Sectors, they use a variety of concepts presented in session GEI2, which justifies their location in this diagram.

In the module below, we have grouped these sessions in three trails:

• Sectors and global indicators (GEI1 and GEI2)

• Geopolitical aspects (GEI3 to GEI6) ;

• Recent changes (GEI7 to GEI9).

The different types of knowledge you should acquire by the end of the course are the following:

You should complete the course having perfectly memorized the following knowledge:

• definitions of key indicators (GDP, GNI, GDP, HDI energy primary, secondary and final energy intensity, CO2 emissions and intensity) ;

• differences between energy reserves and resources;

• orders of magnitude of proved energy reserves.

You should have understood the following concepts:

• rigidity and implementation time of energy policies ;

• international comparisons of key macroeconomic indicators;

• GDP structure;

• key development factors;

• problems specific to developing countries;

• regional distribution of energy consumption and production in the world;

• main features of international energy markets;

• impact on the oil market of importing countries' energy policies

The following skills should have been mastered:

• calculate changes in energy intensities of different countries on the basis of available statistical data

• analyze a national energy balance.

Finally, you develop your skills of analysis and synthesis when you work on the project by applying all the knowledge acquired in order to analyze the energy situation of a country.