Measuring Geoeconomics Risks Along Clean Energy Supply Chains

Growing geo-economic competition is shaping international relations. Dependence on fossil fuel imports is once again being used as a means of exerting pressure—a pattern that has been known since the oil crises of the 1970s as the weaponization of energy and has recently become topical again. However, with the ongoing decarbonization and digitalization, the logic behind this instrumentalization is shifting: new, often asymmetrical interdependencies are emerging along cross-border electricity and hydrogen networks, green value chains, and digital control and certification systems. These open up new opportu-nities for state and private actors to exercise power – and present Europe with the task of increasing resilience without slowing down the transformation. This article provides a systematic review of this rapidly developing field of research and develops a conceptual framework that identifies where geo-economic leverage points arise in the energy transition and how they can be exploited. Building on work on geo-economic control, infrastructural power, and global production networks, three channels for instrumentalizing asymmetric interdependencies are dis-tinguished: (1) physical (infrastructure, transport, and component bottlenecks, including attacks and sabotage), (2) economic (price and quantity control, politically conditioned contracts, sanctions, and boycotts), and (3) policy- and regulation-driven (climate, trade, and industrial policy via standards, certi-fications, export controls, subsidies, and conditioned market access). The article analyzes existing measurement and monitoring approaches from energy, raw materials, sup-ply chain, and digital governance research, classifies their significance for digitized energy systems, and highlights areas where further operationalization is required. Finally, the framework is applied to Eu-rope in order to discuss key implications and options for action in the context of the geo-economic turn-ing point and to outline a prioritized research agenda. The analysis provides important insights into find-ings but also gaps in concepts, data, and methods for future research and policy-making at the intersec-tions of energy, climate, and industrial policy.