Renewable Energy, Biofuels, and Nuclear

Explaining the Energy Diplomacy Strategies of Emerging Powers in the Global Energy Crisis

Abstract

The global energy crisis and worldwide responses to this threat reveal the changing landscape of global energy governance. In the context of the confrontations between the US, China, and Russia, emerging powers, such as the BRICS nations, have developed an energy diplomacy that either exerts bilateral influence or fosters multilateral cooperation. While existing literature suggests that geopolitical concerns influence the selection of recipient countries, other aspects of energy diplomacy in emergencies remain unexplained. This paper focuses on Brazil, a promising market in the energy transition, as a case study to clarify whether supplier countries could influence recipient countries. Through a comparative analysis of China (renewable energy), India (biofuels), and Russia (nuclear), this paper identified those countries' relative advantages in research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and distribution and analyzes the various energy statecrafts in terms of the type of technology transfer, manufacturing location, and global supply chain. The results show that all countries aim for complementarity through strategic partnerships with other countries and organizations to compensate for their weaknesses. The emerging powers' competitive energy diplomacy in times of global crisis has accelerated energy supply. They also utilize existing multilateral frameworks to enhance their credibility.