Editorial

The global energy and climate change landscape are, at the time of writing, in a state of disarray. Most immediately, oil and natural gas markets have been panicked by the war in the Middle East. The United States of America (USA) and Israel launched airborne bombing raids on the Islamic Republic of Iran at the end of February 2026, who then hit back by closing the Straits of Hormuz. That cut off some 20% of world oil and gas supplies, thereby inducing corresponding rises in wholesale prices on international markets. Dr Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA; a network made up of 32 member largely industrialised countries and 13 associated nations), argued that this new ‘fuel shock’ would have a combined impact greater than the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks together with the natural gas shortages stemming from the Russia Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He suggested that the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran in retaliation and its attacks on energy facilities of neighbouring Gulf states had reduced global oil supplies by around 11 million barrels per day; now thought to be nearer 20 million, several times the combined shortfalls experienced in the 1970 s. IEA member countries therefore agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil onto the market, or 20% of their emergency reserves. The reduction in liquified natural gas (LNG) capacity in the Middle East will also have long-term implications. Iranian strikes have cut about 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, leading to a potential loss of US 20 billion in yearly revenue and could cut LNG output by 12. 8 million tons annually from the Gulf state for between three and five years. Birol went on to recommend ten energy saving measures that oil and gas dependent importing nations could take to reduce the consequences of the disruptions, including promoting use of public transport, giving private cars access to city centres on alternate days, encouraging car sharing and efficient driving habits, avoiding air travel where possible (especially business flights), and switching to electric cooking. They were met by some scepticism as being inadequate for the task by a number of western governments and energy specialists. On the climate change front, the World Meteorological Office (WMO) – the United Nations (UN) system's authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere – have observed in their latest State of the Global Climate report (WMO, 2026) that the last 11 years were the Earth's warmest on record stretching back to 1850. A temporary cooling due to the natural La Niña weather pattern meant that 2025 was not quite as hot as 2024. Nevertheless, such global warming is likely to cause extreme weather events disrupting the lives of millions of people worldwide and costing billions of dollars. The challenge of mitigating carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) or ‘greenhouse gas’ (GHG) emissions is made more difficult because President Donald Trump has initiated steps to withdraw the USA from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change (Ares and Hirst, 2015; Darby et al. , 2024). The USA is the world’s second largest GHG emitter country (releasing 11. 1% of global emissions) after the People’s Republic of China (25. 9%) in 2025. Trump views the Paris accord as being a “unfair, one-sided” pact and wishes to prioritise American economic independence over such international climate commitments. He promised during his 2024 presidential election campaign to reverse environmental regulations, and boost domestic fossil fuel production (part of a broader “drill baby drill” approach). In contrast, many countries committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement seek to become net-zero GHG emitters by 2050; thereby achieving ‘carbon neutrality’. Other nations and regions, such as the Europe (collectively emitting some 12. 3% of global GHG emissions), will consequently need to do the ‘heavy lifting’ on climate change mitigation (Darby et al. , 2024) via energy saving measures and the take-up of so-called ‘clean energy technologies’ (such as renewables and nuclear power) to replace fossil fuels. The UKInstitution of Civil Engineers’ ICE proceedings journal ‘Energy’ (published by Emerald Publishing Ltd. ) has for some time adopted the ‘strapline’ of support for innovation in energy systems in the context of “transitions in the era of climate change”. In this issue the reader will find articles that address topics related to net-zero CO2e emissions in construction, renewable energy resources (two papers concerning biofuels), and the interdependencies of critical facilities in urban areas following disasters that cause power outages. They display the international nature of the energy and climate change challenge, including the development of clean energy technologies and power network vulnerabilities, with contributions from Vietnam, India (two pieces) and Taiwan. The first paper by Van Tam (2026) reports the evaluation of 61 ‘high-quality’ journal articles related to net-zero carbon in construction. His review adopts the PRISMA (i. e. ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’) framework to ensure a structured and transparent approach to literature selection and analysis. The findings reveal geographical disparities, with high-income nations advancing technology deployment, while emerging economies focus on foundational capacity and localised solutions. This article identifies six main research themes: the roles of technological innovation and digitalisation (such as the Internet of Things IoT, AI, and Big Data) ; the necessity of robust policy and governance; the interplay of economic incentives and barriers; the focus on embodied carbon and material circularity (a shift in focus from operational energy to embodied carbon in materials, alongside promoting ‘circular economy’ practices e. g. reuse/recycling) ; the practical hurdles to implementation and skills development; and the importance of life-cycle thinking (e. g. consideration of carbon impacts across an entire project). The second paper by Pachamaanickam and Navaneethakrishnan (2026) provides a review that critically evaluates biomass pyrolysis with emphasis on feedstock characterisation, pre-treatment methods, process parameters, and applications of the resulting products. Comparative analysis shows that while fixed-bed and tubular reactors continue to be useful for laboratory research and the synthesis of biochar, fluidised bed reactors produce greater bio-oil yields appropriate for industrial uses. The authors go on to argue that biochar has a multi-functional role in improving soil fertility, helping to remove pollutants, and supporting long-term carbon sequestration. They then suggest that biogas helps recover direct energy through combustion, combined heat and power, and the production of synthetic fuels. Finally, they indicate that bio-oil shows promise as a renewable liquid fuel, but it needs to be upgraded to overcome instability for widespread use. However, it currently faces hurdles concerned with high oxygen content, high moisture (often 57%–69%), and low stability, necessitating significant upgrading before widespread adoption. The third paper by Karmakar et al. (2026) is also within the biofuel domain. They examined Kusum oil (also known as Macassar oil; a yellowish-brown oil extracted from the seeds of the Kusum tree) as a raw material for bio-diesel production. Kusum oil was chosen because it is a non-edible resource that is available in several parts of India, and contains a high proportion of suitable fatty acids for bio-diesel conversion compared to other non-edible oils. The work is directed towards improving the process efficiency with a focus on understanding how governing parameters (such as the molar ratio, reaction time, catalyst concentration, and reaction temperature) affect the yield and quality of the bio-diesel. The authors employed the Taguchi approach (see also Hammond, 2020) with a three-level design to fine-tune these parameters. This method was named after Genichi Taguchi (1924–2012), a renowned Japanese engineer and statistician, who revolutionised quality control by reducing variation through robust design rather than just inspecting for defects after production. In this case, the analysis was applied by Karmakar et al. (2026) in a two-step transesterification process that showed how to reduce the free fatty acid content, thereby enabling the alcohol to react better with the oil. The final paper by Hsu et al. (2026) addresses power outages at critical facilities in urban areas resulting from major disasters in Taiwan. The authors collected and analysed historical disaster data, reviewed cases to examine the propagation patterns, and spatial failures of critical infrastructure. They then used kernel density estimation to examine the geographic hotspots of facilities utilising ‘Big Data’ on power outages. In addition, this study used a semi-quantitative risk matrix to examine the risk of ‘cascading effects’ on critical facilities following disasters in metropolitan areas. This study applies hazard-vulnerability maps of flooding risk under global warming scenarios to assess the risk to critical infrastructure in the current and future situations (for scenarios representing 1°C, 2°C, and 4°C of global heating). In view of the complexity and strong interdependency of infrastructure systems, a single failure may lead to a cascading effect of disruptions in other services. In high-risk districts, short-term exposure to hazards may increase service function risks, and as exposure time increases, the facilities in the area may become increasingly affected, resulting in severe consequences and system service failures. This journal will continue to champion technological and behavioural science developments that can underpin a low-carbon energy transition in support of net-zero GHG emissions reduction for 2050. Over recent decades some of the key UK energy agencies and companies have embraced the concept of the so-called energy policy ‘trilemma’ (see, e. g. Foxon et al. , 2020): balancing low-carbon energy technologies that, in addition, are secure and affordable. This balance has shifted over time from an emphasis on energy security after the two oil shocks of the 1970 s to climate change mitigation from the 1990 s. The challenges identified in the opening paragraph will no doubt shift the focus back toward the need for energy security. ICE Energy will stand fast in terms of encompassing the three pillars of the energy policy trilemma. Readers will find Earlycite (i. e. ‘Ahead of Print’) articles with contributions on UK climate change impacts, strategy and standards; as well as on the development of various ‘clean energy technologies’ (including methods for predicting extreme design forces of wave energy converters). Thus, the journal will persist in its support of the energy-related climate change challenges identified at successive UN Climate Change ‘Conferences of the Parties’ (COP), together with their potential solutions. In terms of fossil fuel production/operations and the uptake of clean technologies, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT, 2023) ahead of the UN climate summit in Dubai at the end of 2023 known as COP28 (Darby et al. , 2024) found that China, the USA, India, the European Union (EU) and Saudi Arabia were all moving in “the wrong direction”. They also criticised countries aiming to adopt what they regard as unrealistic technological options that come into play after fossil fuel has been burned, such as carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) – a process not yet proven at scale (Darby et al. , 2024). Likewise, the IEA (2023) observed that CCS thus far had been a story of “underperformance”. Nevertheless, the IPCC view this technology as being potentially valuable in mitigating hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement and plastics (IPCC, 2023). Engineering net-zero will consequently remain central to the content of this journal, although the achievement of UN climate change priorities will obviously depend on geopolitical events.