Political economy of green growth and energy security

Secure, stable and affordable supplies of energy resources are a condition for sustained economic activity and growth. This makes energy security a highly politicised concept and one of the primary needs of both developed and developing states. 

At the same time, international commitments to reduce the effects of climate change —as laid out in the Paris Agreement of 2015— underline the need for urgent and bold action to catalyse a transition towards low carbon energy sources. Against this background, this report analyses the potential and obstacles for energy security and green growth to align and aims to shed light on what political factors impede or enable this relationship. It offers an approach based on political economy analysis that seeks to identify energy-related green growth options that are both politically and economically attractive. It sets out a framework for in-depth country analysis. The report points to the importance of realising the need to bring ‘the politics back in’, whereas analysis of the energy transition potential is usually rather technical. In this project instead we focus on the discourse on energy security, positions and motives of relevant stakeholders, governance capacity and there influence and configurations, which shape the context in which countries are able to pursue a trajectory of green growth.

This study is the result of a collaboration between the Clingendael Institute and the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands and is part of a larger project  on the potential for middle income countries (Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya) to realise green growth and energy security.