Book Presentation: Green Superpowers: China, the European Union, and the United States in the Global Energy Transition

Abstract

In this seminar, Andrea Prontera will present his latest book “Green Superpowers: China, the European Union, and the United States in the Global Energy Transition” (Oxford University Press), which analyses, compares, and explains the emerging green foreign energy policies and green power strategies of China, the European Union, and the United States. Fossil fuels have long been key to major powers’ foreign policies and international affairs. In the context of the current global energy transition, renewables and low-carbon technologies are emerging as elements that can have a similarly important impact. By combining insights from international political economy, comparative public policy, international relations, and energy policy scholarship, this book presents an original framework for studying these dynamics. It then uses this framework to shed light on the recent green foreign energy policies and green power strategies of the three green superpowers. In doing so, it illustrates the links between the domestic green approaches that these major actors are promoting and their external actions regarding renewables and low-carbon technologies. It also draws attention to the limits and potential of Chinese, European, and US green foreign energy policy as well as to the influence of their competitive interactions on twenty-first-century world politics.