National energy policies and energy security in the context of climate change and global environmental risks: A theoretical framework for reconciling domestic and international law through a multiscalar and multilevel approach

Energy consumption and energy demand are predicted to grow steadily over the next few decades. The international community confronts two great challenges at once: providing secure and cheap energy supplies to meet ever-expanding needs and responding to climate change. There are a variety of national strategies to answer these needs. The impacts of the diverse national strategies on the greenhouse effect are multilevel; they range from the most state-centred to large-scale ones. The nature of the dual problems provides the basis for a review of the diverse approaches based on hierarchies of principles that entail diagonal regulatory strategies on climate change and energy security. These principles should mark the policy priorities to be followed and make it possible to more effectively integrate public laws with differing objectives, such as economic development and the environment. The globalization discourse has fragmented the traditional framework in which the policy-making role of the nation-state is inserted into the international legal system. The coexistence of national, regional and international decision-making levels can be seen to lead to sets of policies which fail to maintain internal consistency. Accordingly, studies on energy issues and studies on environmental risks need to be held together by means of a methodological integration that is able to encompass the multiscalar effect.