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This dissertation aims to explore the conflict over to a strategy on energy security in the European Union between 2007 and 2014 in order to answer the question, whose interests are materialised and how they are articulated in the conflict over energy security. With this aim, the present thesis takes up the central assumptions of the political ecology approach and extends these with insight of the scale debate. The chosen method enables an exploration of the ways in which societal and political power relations are articulated and the revelation of the environmental, social, and institutional dimensions of the dominant narrative of energy security in the EU. First, a theoretical framework is established. Second, the subject of analysis – the 2014 European Energy Security Strategy of the European Commission – and its historical context are introduced in order to unite the elements together in the analysis in chapter 3. The results show that, in particular, actors of the fossil-nuclear energy industry have been remarkably successful in materialising their interests in the Commission’s strategy on energy security. Fossil-nuclear based solutions to energy insecurity are dominant and contribute to the consolidation of a specific fossil society-nature relationship. In the conflict over energy security, a slight reformation of the spatial organisation of EU energy politics can be observed. The European Commission has successfully extended its institutional and regulatory competencies mainly within the Internal Energy Market. Nevertheless, no general substantial shift in the relevance of the various spatial scale levels of EU energy policy can be noticed. The sovereignty of national governments over energy policy remains unaffected within the EU. Furthermore, concerning European integration, the overall tendencies of a fragmentation and renationalisation of EU energy policy become apparent in this conflict over European energy security.
This paper explains the emergence of the „pledge and review‟ governance approach found in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, in place of the „obligatory targets and timetables‟ approach found in the Kyoto Protocol, from a neo-Gramscian perspective. The main argument is that the adoption of pledge and review was a response to both the pressure to agree a new international treaty and the simultaneous divergence of interests and fragmentation of negotiation groups within the UNFCCC regime.
Firstly, the bilateral agreement between the US and China, signed in November 2014, signified the commitment of the world‟s two largest economies to reduction their GHG emissions. Combined with the commitment of the EU, these three actors represent over half of all GHG emissions worldwide, applying strong pressure towards reaching an agreement during the Paris climate negotiations. Breaking from previous historical reluctance on the part of China and the US in the field of international climate policy, China‟s recent heavy investment in green technology and its numerous policy initiatives to increase energy efficiency and reduce pollution have lowered China‟s cost of participation and heightened the cost of its obstructionism within international negotiations, as it shifts onto a path of low-carbon development in an attempt to increase economic competitiveness, increase energy security, and reduce domestic pollution levels. The US, under Obama‟s Democratic Presidency, has sought to make fresh strides in the field of domestic and international climate policy.
And secondly, a continuous fragmentation of the international climate negotiation process has occurred since the early days of the UNFCCC, with an increasingly divergent set of interests being expressed within the negotiations, compounded by the recent addition of developing countries‟ emission reduction targets that resulted in a whole new set of interests being added to the table. This emerged as part of a broader fragmentation of the global climate regime in general, as numerous diverse sites of climate governance were founded, both within and outside the existing UN climate regime. The failure to show leadership on climate from the Global North, the decline of US hegemony and the shift of power towards China and the East, and the emergence of a new multi-polarity in the world political economy were given as causes of fragmentation of the global climate regime. In addition to the complex nature of climate change as a problem, requiring an equally complex and differentiated response from a diverse set of actors, networks, and sites of governance.
When taken together, the pledge and review approach can be seen to have reinforced cooperation between nations and strengthened consensus building, facilitating the search for an agreement under differentiated interests. Being less fixed than obligatory quantitative emission reduction targets, this degree of flexibility is key to the functioning and adoption the system. Thus, the pressure to reach an international agreement and the divergence of interests and fragmentation of negotiation groups resulted in the adoption of the pledge and review governance approach found within the Paris Agreement.
The Energiewende as concept and policy strategy for an energy transformation towards a renewable energy regime in Germany, has since its very beginning included many societal goals beyond the mere shift towards renewables. The decentralised dimension based on principles of energy democracy have characterise the roots of the transition, and through the distinct legislative framework in Germany, mainly by the Renewable Energy Source Act(EEG), the market landscape has reached a large degree of actor heterogeneity mainly constituted by small players. However, in recent years this decentralisation has been challenged by a variety of different policies, resulting from European Union and national legislation. This research outlines how these two governance levels have evolved with respect to the renewable energy regime and how certain policies have affected the decentralised dimension of the Energiewende. Through this policy analysis on the shifting framework, many risks for the continued existence of the renewable energy regime in Germany based on decentralised principles have arisen are being outlined. Small actors under the new market-based conditions have been strongly impacted by the shifting regime and first results of the regime change have been analysed and show the challenges. Based on those findings, the analysis has concluded that to a certain degree, mainly in the legal and policy spheres, a shift towards a more centralised renewable energy regime that favours concentrated ownership structures has occurred. The main drivers have been market-based interests pushed forward by the European Union and a decreased effort of Germany to uphold its renewable energy market design which allowed the shift towards decentralisation. However, the paper also concludes that it is yet too early to say if an overall shift towards centralisation has taken place, as the recent developments of the new regime will have to be further monitored in the coming years, and it will have to be seen how smaller market actors will continue to respond to a framework which is no longer in their favour in the long-run.
The financial crisis of 2008 and the austerity period that ensured entailed a redefinition of democracy and the role of political parties in Europe. In this context, a wave of emerging parties place participation at the heart of their political program to reform the system from within. Thus, they aim not only to revive representative democracy but also internal democracy. The present study tests whether their implementation of anti-oligarchization mechanisms is successful in rejecting Robert Michels ‘iron law of oligarchy’. By conducting a micro-ethnography on the Berlin circle of Podemos, it revealed that the party is successful at preventing oligarchy. While oligarchization trends are present, they are countered by an overall strategy for participation and three specific mechanisms: the circle, digital tools and gender equality.