The energy transition is discussed in terms of generation. Less visible is the physical infrastructure that moves energy around the planet — and the chokepoints that concentrate its risk.
The energy transition is often discussed in terms of generation — solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage. What receives less attention is the physical infrastructure that moves energy around the planet: submarine cables, pipelines, liquefied natural gas terminals, and the geographic chokepoints that all of them pass through.
The globe below shows this infrastructure as it exists today. Each arc is a financial exposure or trade flow. Each point is a resource deposit, financial hub, or terminal. The density of connections between regions tells you something important about which countries are structurally exposed when a link breaks.
Three patterns are immediately visible. First, Europe's dependence on corridor infrastructure through the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea regions — infrastructure that has been under sustained pressure since 2022. Second, the concentration of financial exposure through a small number of banking systems, particularly in Western Europe and North America. Third, the relative sparsity of energy infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa relative to the resource deposits present there.
The energy transition does not happen in the abstract. It happens through specific cables, specific pipelines, specific ports — physical objects with physical vulnerabilities. Understanding where those vulnerabilities are is the precondition for understanding which transition scenarios are actually feasible.