Global Energy Governance - an (Im)possibility?

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Global Energy Governance - an
(Im)possibility? Conflict and Consent in United
Nations Deliberations on Sustainable
Energy Paper presented in the panel Multi-Level
Energy Governance Pathways of Soft Power ECPR
Conference, Pisa 6 September 2007 Sylvia I.
Karlsson sylvia.karlsson_at_tse.fi Turku School of
Economics Finland
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Energy and the United Nations

• energy in the 1949 conference on natural
  resources

• establishing the IAEA in 1957

• ad hoc conferences, Summits on renewables

• committees under ECOSOC

• programmers, projects and...(UNESCO, UNIDO
• UNDP, UNEP, FAO, World Bank etc.)
• ...since 2004 UN Energy

• yet no real home for energy at the UN

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Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
Created by the Rio Conference in 1992 to
review the implementation of Agenda 21 (and later
WSSD outcome)
Functional Commission under ECOSOC meets two
weeks every year, rotating membership
In Johannesburg in 2002 format changed, now two
year cycles on specific themes review year
followed by a policy year
Decisions recommendations to states and the
inter- national community very soft law
Multistakeholder dialogues, partnerships and
learning centre
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Possible mechanisms of CSD influence

• hard sanctions - none

• soft sanctions - possibly

• systems of reward - if so, very indirect via aid

• legitimacy pull to compliance varies and
  dwindling

• webs of dialogue explicitly attempted, result
• uncertain

Pathways of influence via national or global
actors
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Energy surfacing on the global agenda?
2001 CSD 9 Energy Decision 9/1 with long
list of options of actions, vague
2002 WSSD (Johannesburg) Energy for sustainable
development confirming 9/1 renewable soft
target

• 2006/7 CSD 14/15. Themes
• energy for sustainable development
• air pollution
• industrial development
• climate change
• - no decision

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Consensus issues
What most seemed to agree on at CSD 14

• energy access (link to poverty and health, MDGs)

• climate change here and now

• energy security as a major concern and thus
• praise for renewables

• energy efficiency as a win-win measure

But by CSD 15 only consensus on access remained
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Contentious issues

• energy sources (fossil fuels, renewables,
  nuclear)

• energy security - disappeared

• who should pay for it all (Means of
  Implementation)

• global energy governance such as

- international energy efficiency measures
- any type of international measures
- institutionalisation of energy in the UN
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Implications for global energy governance?

• Global norm development has taken a halt

• Impact of existing soft norms (CSD9/WSSD)?

• Will energy governance be raised above the
  national
• and regional level outside the UN (G8, IEA, Bonn
  etc.)?

• The real expectations is on the hard law
  framework
• of Kyoto post 2012