The Nexus between the WTO and the Energy Charter Treaty in Sustainable Global Energy Governance : Analysis and Policy Implications

Sustainable energy policy is one of the biggest challenges the world faces today. The necessity of mitigating climate change and shifting to cleaner energy sources points to the need for a far more coherent approach to today's fragmented global energy governance. This approach has to take into account the linkages between the different pillars of energy governance, including climate change mitigation and energy trade and investment. This issue paper explores the nexus between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) in light of this need, since the two treaty-based systems cover an important area of the energy governance patchwork. It examines how the relationship between these institutions has evolved from their establishment roughly twenty years ago