Energy disciplines in PTAs between security and sustainability concerns: a comparative perspective

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the universe of energy disciplines included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and their evolution through the prisms of energy security and energy sustainability. It offers a comparative perspective by classifying relevant provisions according to their scope and coverage, their level of normativity and enforceability, and their innovative potential for driving a structural reorientation of PTAs from a security-driven approach (ie focused on the use of trade rules to promote energy trade in order to foster availability) to a sustainability-driven approach (ie focused on the use of trade rules to promote environmentally sustainable energy trade in order to facilitate the energy transition). It identifies the main tenets underpinning this ongoing shift and offers some reflections on how and to which extent environmental sustainability can be advanced through PTA disciplines on energy.