Autora: Jéssica Duarte
Publicado em: 2023 IPSA World Congress os Political Science
Ano: 07/2022
ABSTRACT
Climate change is a major global governance challenge of the XXI century
and an elaborated global climate governance system, centralized in the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was established as
a response. However, the lack of effectiveness in the governance system is evident
regarding the continued increase in GHG emissions worldwide. Because global
energy production and climate change are intrinsically related, the search for political
coherence between the different fields is fundamental. Nevertheless, such a
relationship is not stated in institutional terms. Most of the actors in the fragmented
global energy governance prioritize energy security, international security, and
economic interests. Conversely, global climate governance actors did not define the
problem of climate change as directly related to energy use until recently. Despite
being neglected in energy governance research, the United Nations (UN) has the
potential to develop the relationship between the two governance systems. Even
though energy issues were historically discussed in normative and institutional terms
outside of the UN, the current global context is bringing energy to a far more complex
international political framework. In this context, the UN is becoming a more
prominent actor and may have the legitimacy that other GEG actors have not
achieved, regarding the efforts to represent developing countries. Initiatives such as
the climate negotiations coordinated by the UNFCCC, sustainable development
projects by the UN, and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), influence
global energy policies and brings focus to universal access to energy and energy
transition issues. This paper outlines the efforts to institutionalize energy cooperation
in the UN through the analysis of the organization’s official documents, especially
since the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).
The main objective is to evaluate the changing role of the UN as an actor of energy
governance and its implications in climate governance, recognizing its priorities, the
interests at stake, and the contradictions of the process.