Elsevier

Energy Research & Social Science

Volume 1, March 2014, Pages 188-197
Energy Research & Social Science

Original research article
Global environmental politics and energy: Mapping the research agenda

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2014.03.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Energy is central to the survival and prosperity of human society, which explains the social sciences’ interest in energy production, consumption and distribution. The emergence of the global environmental agenda in the second half of the 20th century gave rise to a distinctive research literature on how energy systems and global environmental protection are interconnected. The threat of disruptive climate change, in particular, has thrown the spotlight on the central role that energy plays in shaping the future relationship between human society and its natural environment. This article provides an overview of how the study of global environmental politics (GEP) has shaped energy research in the past and how it contributes to defining the future energy research agenda. It provides a brief review of the emergence of GEP within the discipline of International Relations. It identifies three core conceptual lenses that are central to the GEP research agenda: (i) the study of environmental impacts and ecological limits; (ii) the notions of sustainability and sustainable development; and (iii) the concept of global environmental governance. The article then maps the emerging energy research agenda from a GEP perspective, focused on climate change as the predominant concern and framing of contemporary GEP scholarship.

Introduction

Energy is central to the survival and prosperity of human society. It is no surprise, then, that the social sciences consider energy production, consumption and distribution as a subject worthy of closer scholarly attention [1]. The emergence of the global environmental agenda in the second half of the 20th century gave rise to a distinctive research literature on how energy systems and global environmental protection are interconnected. The threat of disruptive climate change, in particular, has thrown the spotlight on the central role that energy plays in shaping the future relationship between human society and its natural environment. As Sovacool put it, ‘[i]f the twentieth century was about energy, then the twenty-first century could very well be about energy governance and climate change’ [2].

This article provides an overview of how the study of global environmental politics has shaped energy research in the past and how it contributes to defining the future energy research agenda. The subsequent section (2) reviews the emergence of the distinctive field of global environmental politics (GEP) within the discipline of International Relations (IR) and outlines major trends in the evolution of this field. The next section (3) identifies three core conceptual lenses that are central to the GEP research agenda: (i) the study of environmental impacts of human activities and the ecological limits that the natural environment places on global economic growth; (ii) the notions of sustainability and sustainable development, which have informed our thinking on how human societies can live within the boundaries of local, regional and global eco-systems; and (iii) the concept of global environmental governance, which denotes the diverse and complex institutional arrangements that have been created at the global level in order to steer human societies in the direction of greater environmental sustainability. Section 4 then maps the emerging research agenda on energy from a GEP perspective. While this cannot offer a comprehensive depiction of all lines of social science enquiry that currently connect GEP with energy research, it is hoped that the questions and issues raised in this section demonstrate the vitality of existing research and provide some pointers to emerging new questions.

Section snippets

The study of global environmental politics

The study of global environmental politics is usually conducted within the social science discipline of International Relations, though some GEP scholars have been trained and often still work in related disciplines, such as political science and comparative politics, political economy, environmental economics, geography and environmental studies. Given its subject matter, GEP is inevitably multi-disciplinary. It draws on a wide range of social scientific theories and concepts in its effort to

Core concepts in global environmental politics

The multi-disciplinary nature of GEP scholarship makes it is difficult to identify a clear set of theories and concepts that define this sub-discipline. In what follows, I am focusing on three conceptual lenses that have played an influential role in directing the evolution of GEP. It goes without saying that this specific focus cannot claim to capture all major approaches and perspectives in GEP. However, the three concepts below capture three major analytical perspectives that GEP scholars

Global environmental politics and the new energy research agenda

Having reviewed the growth of global environmental politics as a sub-discipline in IR and discussed its main conceptual lenses, this section sketches the emerging GEP research agenda for global energy. This involves reflections on the current state of research and identification of emerging research questions that reflect the increasing confluence of global environmental and energy research. Admittedly, this overview cannot hope to capture the rich variety of the constantly expanding research

Conclusions

As the discussion in this article has shown, the rise of global environmental politics as a sub-discipline of International Relations has had a discernible and lasting impact on energy research. It has established questions about environmental impacts, sustainability and global governance at the heart of the energy research agenda. Concerns about climate change, in particular, have given greater urgency to the GEP-oriented study of global energy. As a result of the gradual merging of these two

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