Ineluctable transnationalism, and the regional approach to the energy transition

About the regional approach to the energy transition, many papers answered this question by focusing on the low carbon transition within a particular region. The approach herein is rather to consider the transition across regions by focussing on the interface of climate law, trade law, and energy financing. The basic argument is that the cross-regional perspective—what I term transnationalism—is ineluctable in many contexts, especially in financing the energy transition. Using the example of export finance undertaken by export credit agencies, the low carbon transition is inescapably shaped by transnational activity in which multilateral regulation operates in ways inimical to ‘Paris alignment’. Whilst some European and other advanced economies rush to make net-zero commitments, the structure of export finance regulation allows them to simultaneously invest in high carbon activities. Legal climate interventions in these contexts which are seen as a driver of the energy transition are deeply transnational. Using climate litigation, they seek to drive the energy transition forward to force and compel governments and commercial actors in particular investment funds to transition to a low-carbon future.