From emissions to extraction: Rethinking the role of international institutions in addressing fossil fuel production

The extraction of fossil fuels – as opposed to emissions from their consumption – has barely made it onto the relevant international policy agendas. This is not surprising, as the issue is closely intertwined with sensitive energy supply decisions that are usually left to national-level policy-makers.

However, as SEI Research Fellow Harro van Asselt argued in a recent working paper, the case can be made that there is scope for international institutions – including but not limited to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) – to take action to address fossil fuel extraction. In fact, he argues, the failure to do so until now is a real missed opportunity.

In this blogpost, van Asselt examines some of the options that could be pursued as part of international climate and trade negotiations:

Most strikingly, questions related to fossil fuel extraction have barely made it onto the agenda of the international climate change negotiations. This is in part the product of a policy architecture based on territorial emissions accounting. While there are good reasons to stick with this type of accounting – not least data availability – this does not mean that alternative forms, such as extraction-based accounting, cannot be implemented in parallel. At the very least progressive countries could help develop such an accounting system by adopting it on a voluntary basis. …

Like the climate negotiations, international trade talks have largely eschewed energy-related questions, even though energy clearly falls under the scope of the WTO Agreements. Fossil fuel subsidies, in particular, are covered by the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. And while international disputes related to renewable energy have reached the global trade arbiter, fossil fuel subsidies remain unchallenged. …

Source: E15 Initiative blog, Switzerland