GPPi launches pilot project on prospects for joint EU-China efforts in Global Energy Governance

The common dependency on energy, shared by societies around the world, entails policy challenges of global nature and scope. From dealing with the negative externalities of CO2 emissions and devising rules for the oil market to regulating access to the civilian use of nuclear technology, energy poses challenges that transcend national borders, involve both the public and private sectors and cannot be meaningfully addressed at a national or regional level. In short: energy interdependence calls for global energy governance. The EU has been a champion of effective multilateralism in all key areas of global energy governance. However, current reality falls well short of these goals. 

One of the most important shortcomings is that existing mechanisms have failed to effectively include crucial new players. This especially holds true with regards to China, an increasingly important player in view of managing global energy challenges. Indeed, as Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSP, has argued the EU needs to ​“go beyond a narrow Western prism” in seeking effective global energy governance. However, both policymakers and researchers in Europe have not sufficiently heeded Solana’s call. So far there is insufficient cooperation between Europe and China in the area of energy governance. Researchers and policymakers in Europe still know little about the drivers of China’s approaches to global energy governance. 

In order to fill this gap, policy research needs to proceed in three steps: First, analyze the drivers that shape European and Chinese approaches to global energy governance. Second, assess areas of convergence and divergence and third, based on these analyses, sketch out concrete options and pathways for joint stakeholdership of global energy governance – both from a positive and a normative perspective. In order to do so, the project zooms in on specific policy issues, from the governance of global carbon emissions to the governance of global oil markets. 

The pilot project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, seeks to provide a first cut at each of these three steps. We do so with partners from Europe (Oxford University, Elcano Royal Institute), China (Peking University) and the US (Brookings Institution as an associated partner). We will hold two internal workshops (in March 2010 and July 2010) and prepare a number of background papers.