Transitioning towards energy security beyond EU borders

The EU aims to promote the green energy transition both at home and abroad. A proactive green energy diplomacy could help to increase energy access levels and mitigate climate change as well as reduce commodity price shocks, social unrest and fossil exporters exerting unwarranted leverage over the EU. This would require a strategy to avoid new dependencies on critical raw materials and to factor in more explicitly an increased realisation that fossil energy relations carry an inherent security risk. But is the EU managing to live up to its green energy ambitions?

After an analysis of the instruments available to promote the green transition in third countries, this policy brief argues that the current EU toolbox does not reflect the scale of the new external energy and foreign policy priorities. The EU needs to make smarter choices in order to align its energy transition ambitions with foreign policy priorities, catalyse private sector investments through guarantees and Team Europe Initiatives, and enhance the flexibility of its instruments.

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