Efforts to tackle the global climate crisis are increasingly complicated by the rise of right-wing populism (RWP) and persistent geopolitical crises. This paper investigates the understudied...Show moreEfforts to tackle the global climate crisis are increasingly complicated by the rise of right-wing populism (RWP) and persistent geopolitical crises. This paper investigates the understudied intersection of these challenges by analyzing how do right-wing populists use nationalist rhetoric to influence climate change action in times of geopolitical crisis? The question is explored with a focus on the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party of Poland, in particular its discourse in parliamentary committee sessions amidst the Russian war against Ukraine and subsequent energy crisis. Through a discourse analysis, it was found that the war served as a justification for PiS to concentrate on short-term solutions prioritizing fossil-fuel based energy security. Polish RWP capitalized on the war-induced crisis by using nationalist rhetoric to undermine the energy transition away from coal and EU climate measures. These findings underscore how geopolitical crises and political ideologies can create significant barriers to effective global climate action.Show less
Executive master thesis | International Relations and Diplomacy (MSc)
open access
With Europe striving towards net zero carbon emissions, green hydrogen is a key priority in EU energy policy due to its significant potential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries. Germany,...Show moreWith Europe striving towards net zero carbon emissions, green hydrogen is a key priority in EU energy policy due to its significant potential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries. Germany, Europe’s largest economy and carbon-emitter, significantly shapes EU energy policy with its domestic Energiewende model, and has been among the first member states to pursue an explicit global hydrogen strategy as part of its foreign policy. However, given the country’s energy import-dependence on Russia, the latter’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and resulting breakaway of Russo-German trade relations has invoked a Zeitenwende (‘turning point’) in Germany’s foreign policy: diverging from past narratives on economic interdependence and market-driven politics, geopolitical and national security considerations are becoming more pronounced. This ‘paradigm shift’ thus has important implications for Germany’s hydrogen strategy, a cornerstone in its current foreign policy. Drawing onto critical geopolitics, this paper critically examines Germany’s hydrogen discourse since the onset of the war, and its repercussions for Europe’s and the global energy transition. The critical discourse analysis of official speeches and statements by the government between February 2022 (i.e. shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and March 2023 reveals how the German government constructs and rationalizes its identity, interests and spatial beliefs about the international system vis-á-vis Russia in its geopolitical discourse on hydrogen. Contextualizing and discussing the assumptions driving Germany’s hydrogen discourse in the context of EU and international energy governance sheds light on how the government’s narrative (re)produces the geopolitics of hydrogen, and promotes a competitive policy framework that might risk undermining more cooperative and equitable efforts in the global energy transition.Show less
Climate change is a growing problem and sustainable energy sources are necessary in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Wind energy is a common source of sustainable energy in the UK, but acceptance of...Show moreClimate change is a growing problem and sustainable energy sources are necessary in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Wind energy is a common source of sustainable energy in the UK, but acceptance of wind farm projects varies, which can lead to delay or cancellation of a project. Previous research found support for the hypothesis that acceptance of a wind farm project is higher when participants receive voice (compared to no voice), and that this relationship is mediated by perceived procedural fairness and trust in the project developer. The current study aimed to replicate and extend these results. It also tested whether expectations of voice opportunity moderate this relationship. Participants were told to imagine that they were a resident of Presford, where a company named UniWind was planning to build a wind park. We then systematically varied expectations (expectations manipulation: expecting voice vs. not expecting voice vs. control group) and whether or not participants received voice (voice manipulation: genuine voice vs. no voice). The study was an experimental scenario study with a 3 x 2 between-subjects design (n = 450; UK citizens). As predicted and replicating previous results, we found a significant main effect of voice opportunity on project acceptance, and this relationship was mediated by perceived procedural fairness and trust in the project developer. However, against what was predicted, no significant moderating effect of expectations was found. Implications and directions for future research were discussed, and the results illustrate the importance of a voice opportunity in the acceptance of wind farm projects. Several suggestions for future research were made.Show less
In the context of a global transition away from fossil-fuelled energy production, the coming shift to low-carbon electromobility will require substantial increases in the extraction of so-called...Show moreIn the context of a global transition away from fossil-fuelled energy production, the coming shift to low-carbon electromobility will require substantial increases in the extraction of so-called energy transition materials. Critical for the production of battery-based electric vehicles, lithium represents a metal whose accelerating extraction in the Chilean salt flats of Atacama and its local consequences are set to pose fundamental questions for the sustainability of the global political economy. In my thesis, I view lithium extraction through an extractivist lens, exploring how corporate sustainability reporting discursively frames and justifies extractive activities in light of shifting global contexts. My point of departure is rooted in critical discourse analysis: Using frame analysis in a qualitative methodological approach, I analyze documents published by the Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM), one of Chile’s foremost lithium producers, to answer the following research question: To what extent are discourses of sustainability employed to legitimize the persistence of lithium extractivism in Chile in the context of the global energy transition? I argue that through its sustainability policies and reporting, SQM develops a corporate brand that situates the company at the intersection of local sustainable development and global climate action. The sustainability frames it employs establish a narrative in which the extraction of natural resources, particularly energy transition metals, becomes a global necessity – SQM positions itself as part of the solution, rather than the cause of socio-environmental challenges. In this way, extractivist modes of economic organization perpetuate themselves through discursive auto-insertion in global visions of more sustainable futures.Show less
This thesis assesses and compares neo-colonial mechanisms in Franco-Algerian and European Union-Algerian relations in shale gas exploration and solar power potential. Neo-colonialism supposes...Show moreThis thesis assesses and compares neo-colonial mechanisms in Franco-Algerian and European Union-Algerian relations in shale gas exploration and solar power potential. Neo-colonialism supposes traditional colonial activities have not ended after decolonisation but are continued ‘hidden in plain sight’. The criteria to investigate these mechanisms are economic predominance, political influence, and perpetuation of socio-economic disparities by cooperation with an elite in the former colony. The theoretical framework draws from the fields of international relations and anthropology. Energy security being the main priority for Algeria, France, and the EU, it dictates the development of new energy resources, often failing to take into account the effects on inhabitants of the extraction zones thus maintaining neo-colonial mechanisms.Show less
Engaging in a just energy transition implies the equitable participation of all stakeholders. The successful development of renewable energy infrastructure projects relies on a strong social...Show moreEngaging in a just energy transition implies the equitable participation of all stakeholders. The successful development of renewable energy infrastructure projects relies on a strong social support. Companies must implement ambitious community engagement practices to gain a social license to operate (SLO) and, thus, mitigate social acceptance risks. This study aims at investigating the interactions between involved companies and host communities of such projects in South Africa, where firms must engage in local economic development activities. It focuses on the construction phase of third-party EPC projects (when Engineering, Procurement and Construction services are offered by an actor that is not the original developer). Based on a comprehensive literature review, field research was conducted. Thorough observations were recorded. Questionnaire surveys were disseminated to the company’s employees and local workers. Semi- structured interviews and discussions were conducted with company’s representatives, local workers, and other community members. A comparative case study approach is adopted to evaluate corporate management strategies. Two projects located in the North West province, Bokamoso and Waterloo Solar Parks, and overseen by the same EPC company, are analyzed. The SLO concept is utilized to assess actual community responses and frame elements of corporate management that might have influenced the positive observed levels of SLO. Results show that: • There is a slight mismatch between the reality on site and its perception by the company. • The company maintains a negative approach to communication, both internally and externally, which negatively influenced local communities’ responses. • Community responses are also shaped by external factors that the company acknowledges but difficultly navigates. These results suggest that host communities and local rules of the game should be better understood by corporate proponents. Practical recommendations to improve community engagement and better mitigate social acceptance risks in renewable energy infrastructure projects, solely during the construction phase, in South Africa are offered.Show less
This thesis addresses state behavior towards their former energy suppliers after the importing state reaches energy independence. Through chapters on the USA, Nicaragua and Germany I have...Show moreThis thesis addresses state behavior towards their former energy suppliers after the importing state reaches energy independence. Through chapters on the USA, Nicaragua and Germany I have elaborated on the question; if and why states have changed their level of political cooperation with states who formerly supplied their energy needs? Washington favoring shale oil has caused it to remain tied to its Saudi Arabian, Venezuelan, and Nigerian suppliers through the global oil market. Washington refrains from going it alone versus its former suppliers and simply retracted from these markets, highlighting the limits of independence through shale. Nicaragua is truly independent because Managua switched to a renewable-dominated energy system thereby making it independent from Venezuelan oil supplies, as well as the global oil market. The German chapter highlights a clear correlation with bilateral Russo-German relations and German energy policy, but the Energiewende has not made Germany independent from Russian energy.Show less
The German energy transition to renewable energy or in another world “Energiewende” has become the center of attention worldwide when the German government announced the total phase-out of nuclear...Show moreThe German energy transition to renewable energy or in another world “Energiewende” has become the center of attention worldwide when the German government announced the total phase-out of nuclear power from the country’s energy mix in short-term as a response to the nuclear disaster taken place in Fukushima in 2011. The complete energy transition of the German economy has had significant impacts on its energy sector and its actors. In the beginning of the 2000s we can see a strong centralization of the market and the emergence of the Big 4 companies, namely E.ON, RWE, ENBW and Vattenfall as dominant actors. In spite of their fast emergence into market leading positions, by the end of the decade, they had to face with serious challenges posed by the spread of new renewable technologies which threatened the own existence of the Big 4. Although there were visible signs that might have indicated the transition of the energy sector from conventional to renewable energy sources, they slowly recognized it and they were too slow to find answers to the challenges they had to face. Why were their reactions so slow? Did they adapt finally to the changing circumstances because of the crisis they had experienced? This seems to be a too easy answer for that question. Therefore this paper tries to contribute to the discussion on the German energy transition by examining the further causes of the above mentioned slow reactions and by investigating the organizational triggers which led the Big 4 companies towards adaptivity in the changed environment. By understanding this process, we can gain a better insight why formerly nonadaptive organizations shift towards adaptivity.Show less
