Global Energy Governance

Abstract

This chapter states that energy governance has become increasingly discussed in academia and global politics as countries continue to combat energy insecurity set against the background of a climate crisis and global economic turbulence. Her chapter seeks to add to the discourse by uncovering the drivers that merit a global energy governance (GEG) system and therefore the objectives that a unitary regime should meet. These drivers, including global energy insecurity, market failure in a liberalised energy market, and the increasingly volatile relationship between politics and energy, have pointed to the necessary mechanisms, dialogues, rules, and collaborations that effective GEG should establish. Beyond that, this chapter explores the existing fragmented ecosystem of various regimes that try, yet largely fall short of meeting these objectives. By assessing selected significant energy and related institutions, we can learn from the deficiencies and opportunities of these organisations and, therefore, characteristics that should be incorporated or mitigated in an idealised integrated GEG system. While it may be established that no coherent GEG exists today, this chapter concludes optimistically by pointing out how we are now witnessing game-changing normative factors that may enable a unitary regime in the near future.