Energy security and public policy. Some implications for the global governance of oil and gas.Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in New Orleans, 18 February 2010

Abstract

The reason that the world has come to prominently discuss ‘energy security’ is as simple as fundamental: technological innovation has come to be geographically detached from natural resources endowment. Energy security by definition has strong public policy characteristics and relates to problems of market failure of global scale. These may occur due to imperfect competition; negative externalities; lack of information; or the presence of public goods. Cases in point are the existence of market distorting cartels; a lack of data on the global oil market; economic costs related to price shocks; the security of global transport routes; or the maintenance of crucial reserve capacity. In all these cases, classical free rider problems arise and ‘energy security’ risks being under-provided by the market altogether. The paper discusses challenges in global energy from a public goods angle and draws conclusions on implications for global energy governance, i.e. an institutional structure facilitating the effective provision of energy security as a global public good.

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