Research Papers

In the EU energy and environmental concerns have been closely connected in the sense that they contributed to the deepening of integration in energy and environmental policy. European competences in environmental policy became actually one of the main vehicles through which energy policy could be pursued at the EU level. Moreover, the overarching aim of sustainable development and its implementation through environmental policy integration (EPI) stressed the energy-environment nexus. Now climate change has become the main driver of energy and environmental policy, which is also reflected in an emerging policy discourse on climate policy integration (CPI). Again, synergies tend to be emphasised, but CPI may also open-up (new) conflicts. This paper takes a closer look at synergies and trade-offs regarding the energy-environment nexus resulting from the EU’s commitment to combat climate change. The empirical analysis focuses on recent debates about establishing an integrated approach to climate and energy policy, including concrete policy measures taken in this context, for instance the promotion of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Whether this indicates that climate change mitigation constitutes the new ‘principled priority’ potentially undermining the broader sustainability discourse will be discussed based on the empirical findings. Essentially, this paper stresses that the energy-environment nexus is not fixed but continuously (re-)constructed through discursive practices with very concrete implications for the kind of energy policy measures taken at the EU level.