A Parisian Consensus

FREDERIC GILLES SOURGENS*

Climate change is a leading challenge for world society today. Global climate action so far has proved unable to meet the moment. The reason for the current policy impasse is that we treat climate change as an environmental problem instead of an energy problem. Once we switch perspectives, we can see that we are trapped in an energy trilemma-caught between energy equity, energy security, and environmental sustainability. We can only resolve the trilemma when we balance the three limbs against each other. I propose that a commons governance approach can achieve this goal.

For any such approach to work, we must rely heavily on one of today's great bugbears: economic globalization. I submit that the existing legal framework supporting globalization, known as Washington Consensus instruments, can in fact be fused with the global climate framework under the Paris Agreement to give rise to a "Parisian Consensus" on global energy governance. This Parisian Consensus builds on an existing global legal infrastructure to slingshot us past the current climate impasse. It differs from existing approaches to climate governance by insisting upon a developmental imperative: we must expand, rather than restrict, energy access to create an energy infrastructure capable of supporting equitable development. I submit that this development perspective can succeed where existing approaches have stalled: generating realistic buy-in for a global, sustainable energy future.

* Senator Robert J. Dole Distinguished Professor of Law & Director, Oil and Gas Law Center, Washburn University School of Law. I would like to thank Leonardo Sempertegui, Melissa "MJ'' Durkee, James Gathii, and Diane Desierto for comments on earlier versions of this Article.