EU Geoeconomic Power in the Clean Energy Transition

Abstract

The energy transition is affected by a ‘double geopoliticisation’: global competition for hydrocarbons has increased, due to the sudden turmoil in the energy markets, whilst the urgency to clean energy transition has exacerbated competition for green technological leadership. This article investigates whether the EU has adapted its goals and instruments to these intertwined geopoliticisation pressures and, if so, under what conditions has it been able to wield geoeconomic power. Using Barnett and Duvall's taxonomy of power, this article argues that geoeconomic power presupposes a shift from diffuse to direct forms of power and theorises the factors that facilitate or constrain the EU's ability to exercise this type of power. This article finds that the EU has significantly transformed the goals and instruments of its external energy policy. Yet the extent of its geoeconomic power depends on a combination of often-overlooked domestic enabling factors and the external geopolitical environment.