ABSTRACT
Energy and climate change have become related issues in recent political discourse, refl ecting changes in global politics. The issues are linked, but they have typically been treated separately. This chapter explores the relationship between energy and climate as a strategic pair. This does not imply, however, that they are necessarily complementary policy goals. Each is a challenge for actors with critical roles in setting the global agenda, where incoherence and competing political priorities undermine coordinated, consistent policy. At the same time, there are opportunities for encouraging behavioural modifi cation (“nudging”) and social action to support political change toward environmental protection and effi cient energy (see Chapter 26 ). The confl uence of energy and climate policy – at the point where carbon is released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels – may suggest potential benefi ts of a “win-win” approach by which both policy goals are achieved through “effi ciency” and innovation. However, effi ciency and innovation alone are not likely to reduce the overall use of carbon-based energy or reduce climate impacts, and there is seldom room in daily politics for energy suffi ciency or urgent policies to address climate change. The consequences are uncoordinated tensions rather than coherent solutions, even as climate change and related energy policies become more central to social and political agendas.
