Global Energy Politics

Thijs Van de Graaf, Benjamin K. Sovacool

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781509530519
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Trade & Tariffs
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today's rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil.This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.

1
Introduction: Systems, frames, and transitions

Energy is central to almost all areas of modern human activity. The computer on which we are typing this text, the smartphone in your pocket, and the heating in your home all depend on the availability of sufficient and affordable supplies of energy.¹ Access to energy services is often taken for granted in affluent countries. Yet, almost a billion people in the world do not have access to electricity in their homes, while many more suffer from supply that is of poor quality.² These people experience on a daily basis what it means to have no or insufficient access to mobility, lighting, refrigeration, or telecommunication. In very simple terms, many of these people have never watched a television show, let alone streamed Netflix; they have never had a hot shower, let alone stayed in a modern hotel; they may never have had a cold beer, let alone refrigeration for vaccines. Moreover, energy is the single largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resulting in climate change that, if left unchecked, could devastate our planet.

Energy does not just affect our personal daily lives and our natural ecosystems. It also profoundly shapes our wider societies, economies, and politics – and it has done so throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today’s fossil fuel-driven civilization.³ Few people realize the extent to which the wealth of nations, the fate of political leaders, and international relations more broadly are shaped by the way we produce and consume energy. Energy is not just another commodity: it is a strategic good for the survival of regimes, a critical input factor for the world economy that can shift large swaths of wealth around, a massive source of pollution, and a major cause of social goods and evils. These attributes make energy a key driver of the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics.

The upshot is that energy questions are deeply political and yield distributional consequences. They create winners and losers. That is why the global energy challenge of ensuring secure, sustainable and affordable access to energy for all is not susceptible to resolution by the “hard” or “objective” disciplines of physics, mathematics, economics, and engineering. Such an approach fails to grasp the political stakes and tradeoffs involved in energy trade and decision-making, from the global all the way to the local and even individual level. Energy discussions are often reduced to technical issues and matters of cost but, at their core, they involve political and moral choices about the kind of society we want to live in.

Even so, scholars of international relations (IR) and social scientists more generally have long overlooked energy issues.⁴ To the extent that global energy politics is addressed at all by IR scholars, it is mostly framed through geopolitical lenses, and it focuses almost exclusively on oil and gas.⁵ The concept of “energy security,” in particular, has become something of a cottage industry, spawning a voluminous body of work.⁶ Recently, a small number of studies have sought to counter this security focus by adopting perspectives rooted in public policy,⁷ governance,⁸ and international political economy.⁹ Unfortunately, however, there has been little effort to integrate these various dimensions into a single framework.

The goal of this book is to provide an overview of the main concepts and approaches in the study of “global energy politics,” which we define as the struggle over who gets what, when, and how in energy use and production from an international perspective. The book introduces a novel framework to interpret global energy politics, based on a socio-technical system approach and contested frames. Socio-technical systems refers to a broad conceptualization of the infrastructures in place to deliver energy services, not just as the resources and technologies themselves, but also as a set of user practices, cultural meanings, institutions, and supply networks. It goes much beyond narrow views of energy security as the secure supplies of oil and natural gas, and it illustrates how the politics of coal is different than that of oil or renewable energy. Contested frames refers to different stakeholder views surrounding different energy systems: neo-mercantilism, market liberalism, environmentalism, and egalitarianism. Each reflects different ideologies, world views, value-systems, and hard-nosed interests.

Key questions that we will address include: How can we ensure that all people have reliable and affordable access to sufficient energy for their needs? When and how will states cooperate to mitigate energy-related emissions of greenhouse gases? In what ways can energy be used as a foreign policy tool to coerce other countries? What does it mean to make a “just transition” to low-carbon energy sources and how could it affect energy democracy and local politics?

Figure 1.1 Evolution of the modern energy system

Source: Compiled with data from Smil, V. (2017) Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, Appendix A.

A critical juncture in energy politics

The story of the modern energy system over the past two centuries is primarily one of rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels – that is, oil, coal, and natural gas (see figure 1.1). During the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, coal gradually replaced wood and biomass. Coal was itself overtaken by oil after World War II as the world’s dominant energy source. Natural gas use has also increased globally, but as of now, oil still reigns supreme. Fossil fuels today still supply around 80 percent of worldwide primary energy consumption. Renewables are among the fastest-growing energy sources in recent years, but since they start from a very low base, it takes considerable time for them to make a mark on the global energy mix. It is well worth noting that the energy shifts in figure 1.1 represent energy additions rather than energy transitions. For example, even if coal has lost market share relative to oil and gas in the latter half of the twentieth century, it has still continued to grow in absolute terms.¹⁰

The fossil fuel era has produced great wealth as well as advancements in convenience, comfort, and cleanliness.¹¹ It has sustained a sevenfold increase in population growth – to more than 7 billion people – and a seventyfold increase in global production over the last 200 years. By this measure, the “average” inhabitant of planet earth is today more than 11 times better off than in 1820.¹² Exploiting fossil fuels has set off an energy bonanza, transforming human societies and cultural values, making them in a way more democratic and less violent.¹³ These trends – energy consumption, population growth, increase in wealth, and others – accelerated after World War II.¹⁴ Today, we are also witnessing the growing imprint of this “great acceleration” on our environment, and the possibility that our economy is transgressing the “planetary boundaries” that provide a “safe operating space for humanity,” threatening the functioning of ecosystems and triggering destructive climate change.¹⁵

Fossil fuels have several advantages which make them attractive energy sources: they have high energy densities (particularly oil), are easy to store and transport (particularly coal and oil), and they are versatile in their applications (natural gas, for instance, is used for cooking, heating, power generation, mobility, and as a chemical feedstock). They are also relatively cheap, but often that is because their full environmental and health impacts are not well reflected in their price. Fossil fuels are not just polluting, they are also stored in finite reserves that are geographically concentrated, raising energy security concerns for countries that rely on imports.

Today, we are on the cusp of four major transformations in global energy politics, transformations that will not just disrupt the way we produce and consume energy, but will also likely transform our economies, societies, and political systems along the way. The aftershocks of these energy transformations will be felt in corporate boardrooms, political cabinets, and individual households. These changes have important implications for how we study and define the global politics of energy. For decades, global energy politics has been synonymous with the struggle for oil, the power game between oil-rich countries, private oil companies, and Western consumer countries. Such a narrow focus is no longer tenable in l...