Geopolitics and the Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe: Breaking or Reinforcing the Dependency?

This paper aims to fill the gap of lacking theoretical conceptualization of clean energy transitions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Focusing on Western Europe or the USA, most studies have built on two theoretical literatures. First, the socio-technical transitions literature focuses on long-term, multi-dimensional transformation processes of socio-technical systems towards more sustainability. Second, the literature on political economy of energy transitions puts a stronger emphasis on national political-economic interests and institutions. In contrast, scholarship on CEE highlighted the importance of geopolitical factors, such as the region’s energy dependence and the role of foreign policy narratives in shaping energy politics. Expanding on previous conceptual work relating clean energy pathways to different varieties of capitalism (Cetkovic & Buzogány 2016), the paper builds a bridge between the different approaches explaining energy transitions in CEE and illustrates the variety found in the region. Specifically, the contribution argues that the “dependent market economy” model of CEE countries and their nuclear and fossil-fuel energy lock-in are deeply interlinked. In illustrating the argument, the paper elaborates on the dependent type of political economies in CEE countries and how the recent role of foreign powers as energy investors, particularly China and Russia, fits into and reinforces the economic and energy path dependence in the CEE region. The paper also aims to generate broader insights about global energy transition and technology disruption by exploring the trend of nuclear and fossil-fuel foreign energy investments in CEE countries.