Loading…

The European Union and the good governance of energy resources: Practicing what it preaches?

The good governance of energy resources and its role in the development of oil and gas producing countries is an area of growing interest in the global agenda. The European Union (EU), as an actor that has the double condition of being a major importer of oil and gas as well as a so-called “normativ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy policy 2020-12, Vol.147, p.111884, Article 111884
Main Authors: Escribano, Gonzalo, Paredes-Gazquez, Juandiego, San-Martín, Enrique
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The good governance of energy resources and its role in the development of oil and gas producing countries is an area of growing interest in the global agenda. The European Union (EU), as an actor that has the double condition of being a major importer of oil and gas as well as a so-called “normative power”, promotes the development of resource governance standards in the Global South. This article analyzes the role of the EU in improving the governance of energy resources, not only from an institutional perspective but also regarding the practical implications that such a normative approach has on European oil and gas import patterns. The paper explores whether EU's oil and gas imports have been affected by the policies of improving transparency and good resource governance in the oil and gas extractive sector, or if these policies have been ineffective in shaping their geographical origin. It tries to address empirically the link between the level of resource governance in oil and gas exporting countries and the EU's oil and gas geographical import pattern. •Good resources governance constitutes a significant gap in global energy governance.•We test the link between EU's oil and gas import patterns and resource governance.•The EU tends to import more oil and gas from producer countries implementing EITI.•Resource governance scores does not influence EU's oil and gas import patterns.•Our results confirm a narrative of “governance as transparency” in EU energy policy.
ISSN:0301-4215
1873-6777
DOI:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111884