Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
'
in developing states have pushed the EU to prioritise transpar-
ency measures in the hydrocarbon sector but have remained ambivalent if not
hostile to the incipient diversion of resources to renewable projects in these
economies.
65
The notion of citizens being able to exert
resource curse
'
through
litigation has not progressed, and is not a notion backed by governments; this has
led some experts to recall that a global UN-level agreement is still necessary and
cannot be entirely replaced entirely by bottom-up approaches.
66
Environmental
NGOs are also deeply split on geo-engineering.
67
Companies have been even more low-pro
'
climate justice
'
le and tepid in their views on the
climate security agenda. Of course, a plethora of business organisations have been
formed that cover climate issues, including the World Business Council for Sus-
tainable Development and the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. But,
little ethos of public
-
private partnership has taken shape on climate change
'
s more
geo-strategic dimensions. Business Europe
-
the main employers
'
organisation in
Brussels
has remained disengaged. Its engagement on the broader questions of
climate change has been described by insiders as bland and humdrum. The Eur-
opean Roundtable has been sceptical of attempts to link foreign to environmental
policy. Renewables companies tend to be small and have struggled to access
formal, strategic-level decision-making processes.
68
The Energy Business Council
was launched in March 2009 to ensure that the voice of the energy sector is heard
in the EU policy debate. The weight of its members
-
which include the likes of
Acciona, Alstom Power, Chevron, Edison, Enel, Eni, Eurelectric, Fortum, Iber-
drola, Petrobras, Renault, Repsol, RWE, Shell, Siemens and Statoil
-
-
militates in
favour of a focus on very traditional
questions. A Shell representative
observed that interest in climate security has diminished since the economic crisis,
with the company now lobbied less from NGOs and solicited less frequently by
governments on this question.
Statoil executives lament that little progress has been made in changing the
nature of the policy process. Much more systematic input is still required from
companies into the design of EU external energy and climate policy. Only ad
hoc and super
'
security
'
cial changes have been introduced so far. Few links have been
built up between the private sector and the Network of Energy Security Obser-
vers.
69
The 2010 survey of the Investor Network for Climate Change found
growing preparation for climate change issues among investors, but with limita-
tions: a lack of knowledge persisted among investor analysts of climate change
linkages to standard investment indicators, and less than a third of investors were
found to have engaged directly with policy-makers on the broader climate
change agenda.
70
Climate change is the issue that investors have found hardest to
factor into political risk and where most uncertainty exists of all the issues routi-
nely looked at by companies, weakening their policy engagement.
71
Many
