Towards Global Energy Governance: How to Patch the Patchwork

Contemporary global energy relations have fundamentally changed, inter alia, as a result of dwindling oil and gas reserves, an increase in demand
for energy from emerging economies, the need for global climate change action, the impact of renewable and alternative sources of energy, and,
linked to all this, the increased politicisation and securitisation of energy. The institutional architecture governing energy relations worldwide has been unable to accommodate these developments. It suffers from fundamental issues of representativeness, a low level of institutionalisation and a lack of compliance enforcement capacity. Today’s institutions thus risk becoming unrepresentative and ultimately ineffective unless reform takes place. Subsequently an analysis is made of the most influential international energy fora and institutions with a particular view to identifying their ability to effectively govern global energy relations, the role of emerging and developing countries within the current architecture, and the potential for
these fora and institutions to contribute to an inclusive and effective form of global energy governance.