Addressing Climate and Geopolitical Crises in EU Energy Policy: Dilemma of Securitisation

Description

In 2019, the European Union (EU) set an ambitious goal to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 in response to intensifying global warming. However, the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine brought a more immediate geopolitical crisis to the forefront. Despite this, the EU developed an energy policy response aimed at reconciling measures addressing both crises. The REPowerEU plan, adopted in May 2022, seeks to rapidly reduce EU’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels by diversifying energy supplies and accelerating the green transformation of the EU’s energy system through energy savings and renewable energy production. This marks a significant shift in EU energy policy, signalling that energy security and environmental sustainability are inherently interconnected. Nevertheless, this dual approach is not without challenges. This paper examines how the securitization of Russia can undermine environmental sustainability, using Latvia as a case study. The conceptual framework of strategic narratives, with a particular emphasis on the notion of discursive traps, underpins the analysis. Strategic narratives are critical instruments of soft power that allow policy actors to shape the perceptions and actions of others to achieve specific objectives. To identify Latvia’s strategic narrative and its implications, the study draws on a dataset of government press releases issued between the onset of Russia’s aggression on February 24, 2022, and the Latvian parliamentary elections on October 1, 2022. Narrative analysis reveals significant tensions between energy security and environmental sustainability in practice. The findings highlight that when Russia, rather than climate change, is securitized, reconciling these two objectives becomes problematic. The study contributes to understanding the complexities of aligning geopolitical and environmental goals in EU energy policy amidst crisis contexts.

Period	27 Mar 2025
Event title	Research week 2025: PLACES: PLACES
Event type	Conference
Conference number	4th
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Riga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International