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Energy and Environment: Sustainable Development Goals and Global Policy Landscape
The chapter outlines the main features of national and international policy-making process in the area of energy and environment. The standard policy-making cycle is adjusted to incorporate the multifacet nature of the subject area, along with involvement of various stakeholders.
Further, security aspects in key universal international agreements with environmental and energy goals, including the UN Resolution establishing SDGs, are analyzed. Besides setting the harmonized energy and environmental goals, they wipe out the zero-sum game and free rider risks, limit discrimination, and bring more substantial results. Moreover, these agreements provide grounds for discussions, information exchange, and cooperation for all signatories. Regional agreements may also bring security gains, including a more optimal use of resources and production capacities among member states, while at the same time may create tensions with the third parties.
Additionally, the possibility to harmonize energy and environmental policies from the security perspectives is discussed. How could energy and environmental targets be attained simultaneously? At which level should efforts be applied, and where is the power concentrated? The following approaches are suggested: common administration, interdepartmental cooperation, and integration of energy and environmental priorities in one document.
The chapter finishes with an outlook of the changing international relations around global environmental and energy security priorities. Despite the growing trends toward regionalism and nation-state protectionism, the future of energy and environment security is associated with universalism. Global accords allow addressing the public goods nature of both energy and environment, grand challenges (climate, pandemic, etc.), and the most efficient and timely responses.