The relationship between climate change and energy security: Key issues and conclusions

Abstract

There has been considerable work on the politics of climate change and energy security as separate issues, but much less on the relationship between energy security and climate change. From studies of the relationships between these concepts in individual states and a comparison of media coverage of energy security in differing states, there appears to be little consistent connection between discourses on and policies for energy security and climate change. Climate change considerations appear to be constructed to promote elite and special-interest interpretations of energy security. It is concluded that efforts at a local, national, and global level should be oriented towards promoting climate change objectives to capture energy policy. Otherwise, nationally based conceptions of energy security are likely to predominate over climate-change objectives. © 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis.