Description
The paper aims to connect two defining issues of contemporary international relations: an ongoing global energy transition pressed by the need to tackle climate change and the rise of China. It connects those two processes by investigating how China’s energy transition influences the country’s position within the international system and identifies three dimensions of power in which that occurs: energy security, global environmental governance and status, and technology leadership. These dimensions work as mediating variables between China’s energy transition towards low carbon sources (independent variable) and its position in the international system (dependent variable). To analyze this multidimensional process, the paper builds a theoretical framework that combines International Political Economy, geopolitics, and global governance. It follows a mixed-method approach, as it uses multiple primary materials such as statistical data on energy, official speeches and documents, and expert interviews, and applies various methods of analysis such as descriptive statistics and content analysis. Though there are plenty of studies on China’s energy transition and China’s rise, how the former influences the latter is still underexplored. The paper thus offers a comprehensive account of this relation by bridging these two variables.
