Introduction to the Special Issue: Governing Energy in a Fragmented World
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| Author | Navroz K. Dubash,Ann Florini |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00131.x |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
Introduction to the Special Issue:
Governing Energy in a Fragmented
World
Ann Florini
Brookings Institution and National University of Singapore
Navroz K. Dubash
Centre for Policy Research
Abstract
This special issue brings together leading experts from Asia, Europe and North America to examine the international
institutions, national governance mechanisms and financing systems that together will determine the future of the
energy sector. The enormous environmental externalities imposed by fossil fuel extraction and consumption, the
devastating corruption and human rights abuses that have accompanied this energy system, and the geopolitical
vulnerabilities that have arisen because of the uneven natural distribution of these resources, have occasioned
enormous handwringing – but not, yet, a shift to a more rational system of providing energy services. Although
national governments play the dominant role in energy governance, these challenges are beyond the scope of any
single national government to manage, making energy policy a key component of global governance and
international relations.
For two centuries, industrial development, economic
prosperity and increasingly national security have
depended on fossil fuel energy sources. Energy security
– and thus national security in both its military and eco-
nomic components – has been defined in terms of reli-
able and affordable access to those sources. The
enormous environmental externalities imposed by fossil
fuel extraction and consumption, the devastating corrup-
tion and human rights abuses that have accompanied
this energy system, and the geopolitical vulnerabilities
that have arisen because of the uneven natural distribu-
tion of these resources, have occasioned enormous
handwringing – but not, yet, a shift to a more rational
system of providing energy services.
The irrationality of the current energy system is
becoming more and more widely recognized. Climate
change has climbed up the political agenda nearly
everywhere, escalating pressures for a transformation of
the energy sector, which contributes roughly two-thirds
of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Geopolitical
tensions have erupted over potential energy resource
conflicts in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
Perhaps less high profile, but growing in importance,
concerns have also developed over the human rights
and governance challenges inherent in an energy sys-
tem that depends primarily on the extraction of fossil
fuels, often from countries that lack the institutions to
cope.
To date, growing recognition of the problems has not
translated into much in the way of improved global
energy governance. Traditional energy security thinking
and the imperatives of using more energy to raise living
standards in poorer parts of the world has pushed many
governments to continue to invest financial, diplomatic
and even military resources in securing traditional
energy resources. So far, climate change and good gov-
ernance concerns have failed to convincingly reorient
the energy sector toward a large-scale transformation
away from fossil fuels. There is no agreement on what
path to follow to a low-carbon future. And in the
absence of effective action, the multiple and manifest
failures of energy policies throughout the world have
become central to the world’s most pressing challenges:
climate change and environmental sustainability; poverty
alleviation; national governance and human rights pro-
tection; and geopolitical stability.
Although national governments play the dominant
role in energy governance, these challenges are beyond
the scope of any single national government to manage,
making energy policy a key component of global gover-
nance and international relations. But as the articles
in this special issue make clear, the current fractured,
Global Policy Volume 2 . Special Issue . September 2011
Global Policy (2011) 2:SI doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00131.x ª2011 London School of Economics and Political Science and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Introduction
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