Pathways Toward a Global Standard for Transparency in the Governance of Energy Resources

Abstract

This article considers the global governance of energy resources as a coordination problem to provide the intermediate global public good of payments and revenues disclosure. The demand for international arrangements to fill this gap resulted in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and subsequent US and European Union disclosure standards for extractive industries. EITI has attributes of contested multilateralism such as being a multistakeholder voluntary coalition setting a standard for transparency. US and EU disclosure standards constitute unilateral pathways with a global vocation. The article argues that EITI and US and EU standards are simultaneously competing with and complementing each other, adding regime complexity but ultimately supplying higher disclosure standards in the energy sector.