The Paris Agreement and Stranded Assets

Abstract

The impact of global environmental politics and the emerging international organisation of a global anti-climate change movement have brought a new dimension of uncertainty to the future of fossil fuels. This panel investigates the consequences of such uncertainty in the context of the 2015 Paris Agreement on mitigating climate change. It considers the environmental, economic and political viability and sustainability of the commitments to which the Agreement’s signatories have agreed in the context of increasing concerns about stranded assets, and what the consequences of a successful implementation of the Agreement would mean for both exporters and consumers of energy. In particular it aims to understand how the Agreement will affect the shift away from fossil fuels towards renewable sources of energy and how vested interests, depending on their perceived interests, will attempt to promote the status quo and established fossil fuel lock-ins or push for a comprehensive transition towards a low-carbon economy. Papers can address these issues by focussing on various aspects of inter-state relations, state-business relations and the role of civil society in attempting to transform global climate governance to thereby make the Agreement a viable strategy for a successful energy transition.