Measuring policy coherence on global access to clean energy between European countries

Abstract

Amongst the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring energy access in developing countries while reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases is critical. To achieve such goals, international cooperation combined with investments in research, technology, infrastructures and capacity building are paramount. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 on access to affordable and clean energy, includes both targets at the domestic and international stages of energy policy. However, trade-offs are emerging in the monitoring phase of SDG7 and its targets, signalling the need for stronger coherence at all stages. Here, we assess to what extent policy coherence exists, and is or is not maintained, considering internal and external energy policy in Europe. We find that a higher level of coherence exists in internal than external energy policy. This result questions the overall positive contribution and commitment of European countries when it comes to facilitating energy access in developing countries. The results also highlight the positive effect of common policy frameworks and the need to rely more extensively on new means for governing and improving international policy coherence. We identify key trade-offs and co-benefits to be addressed for achieving improved policy coherence and call for a common framework that unifies internal and external energy policy in Europe for accelerating progress towards global access to clean energy.