The Geopolitics of Sustainable Energy Transformations

Sustainable energy transitions are underway in many countries around the world – prompted and enabled, in large part, by global, national and local political processes of climate change mitigation. Arguably, however, research on the geopolitics of energy, focused as it often is on oil, transit and borders, has not taken account of these changes. There is an emerging, and very promising, literature on the geopolitics of renewable energy but we argue here that a new approach is required that takes account of: the growing diversity and complexity of energy systems, how they are governed, as well as changes in relations between actors and systems. This is partly because, in addition to growth in renewable generation, sustainable energy transitions also encompass: greater demand side management, processes of decentralisation, infrastructure shifts, a range of new energy actors, and demand for new energy inputs (such as critical minerals). Each of these infers a need to re-think how geopolitics is framed in relation to energy. However, beyond such changes wrought by a shift towards low carbon alternatives, sustainable energy transitions, designed to meet Paris Agreement targets, also include attempts to transition away from fossil fuels and the varied roles that producers (companies and countries) take within those contested processes. This paper draws (mainly) upon politics of sustainable energy transitions and political geography scholarship in order to put forward a diverse, whole systems approach which allows for a multi-scalar understanding of the ways in which energy systems, and power politics, are transitioning around the world. Our approach will take account of, and help to frame, the ways in which politics, scale and energy materialities inter-relate in ways that allow us to re-think the geopolitics of energy in the 20th century.