Steering global energy governance: Who governs and what do they do?

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in exploring indirect governance at the global level. However, very little work has considered these relationships in the domain of energy. In fragmented global governance domains, such as energy, the G20 has frequently been identified as an actor capable of steering other actors via indirect forms of governance. Yet to date, we do not have answers to key questions including, what is the range of actors being enrolled by the G20? And what governance functions are these actors enrolled to perform? To answer these questions, I utilize a novel database of G20 enrollment since 2008, which shows that the G20 enrolls international organizations more frequently than any other actor, and that agenda setting is the most commonly performed governance function. These data are then matched with qualitative interview data to make descriptive inferences about the patterns of global energy governance, including the extent of fragmentation, the identity of focal actors, and the G20's steering role, and how these patterns have changed over time.