Renewable Energy goes Global: International Institutions and Domestic Policies

Abstract

Energy services are key to a well-functioning modern society, but at the same time put other significant development opportunities under pressure. Energy consumption and production, being the main cause of climate change, pose a threat to, for example, food security and the availability of clean water. Consequently, the importance of a growing uptake of renewable energy is increasing. Renewables satisfy the globally rising energy demand and simultaneously contribute to the mitigation of the climate change effects. Particularly in developing countries, where the population is most vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate and where many still lack access to energy. Global governance and international institutions are of great importance to promoting renewables. For example through committing governments to the use of renewables and by facilitating free trade of technologies and knowledge transfer. However, geographical conditions differ across the earth, and so does the availability of resources. Therefore, reliable domestic policies are at least of the same importance. Based on different methods and research focuses this panel discusses a variety of studies on renewable energy governance and policy-making from the global to the local level. Significant questions to be answered are: who are governing the global renewable energy governance domain? What role is the sole intergovernmental organization dedicated to renewables, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), playing within this domain? And how can energy policies and policy-instruments be best designed, in order to ensure a successful transition towards a sustained use of renewables worldwide? Finally, this range of studies will provide significant insights on how domestic policies result in lessons for the global governance arena and vice versa.