The Role of EU Delegations in Climate and Energy Diplomacy in a Contested World Order

This dissertation focuses on how European Union (EU) Delegations and Offices, as the EU’s quasi-embassies in more than 140 locations across the globe, implement the EU’s climate and energy diplomacy. By putting the EU Delegations at its centre of analysis, the study offers novel insights into how EU diplomacy works ‘on the ground’, namely in a more continuous and comprehensive fashion, compared to summit diplomacy or the specific activities of Brussels actors (e.g. High Representative, Presidents of the European Council or European Commission). The objectives of this dissertation are twofold. First, the study provides a systematic and comprehensive mapping of Delegation output, i.e. activities and messages. Second, the study explains variance of Delegation activities and messages. To this end, the study employs a mixed methods approach, implementing two distinct research phases. The first phase of the study builds on 66 online interviews with diplomats at EU Delegations across the globe, studying the insights on Delegation activities and messages using qualitative content analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). The second phase of the study builds on an in-depth case study of the activities and messages of three Delegations (in Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Australia) and external perceptions thereof through fieldwork.

The main findings of this dissertation are that Delegations implement climate and energy diplomacy in various ways and by employing a diversity of activities and messages. In terms of activities, Delegations work with EU Member State offices present in the local host country context as well as with non-EU actors present in the host country (e.g. United Nations offices). They build relations with the host country government and with the wider public of the host country (e.g. through engagement with civil society actors, media activities). They implement projects. They also report back to Brussels actors, thus informing Brussels-level decision and policy-making. These activities vary in type and intensity, for instance since some activities require more effort than others (i.e. time, expertise, financial resource). Furthermore, while some Delegations perform many activities, others implement significantly fewer, thus showing variance in the implementation of climate and energy diplomacy in quantity. On top of that, Delegations employ various messages in climate, energy, and related policy areas. Most prominently these concern the promotion of climate ambition and the energy transition, but they also concern messages such as green economy and natural capital as well as wider fields such as sustainable mobility. A key finding therein is that most messages were crossing various sectors yet they were often perceived as synergetic. Overall, a tendency to prioritize messages of climate diplomacy (over energy diplomacy) was found.

To explain variance in what Delegations do in partner countries, the dissertation employs a conceptual model built on the concept of actorness and Foreign Policy Analysis, centred around capability, presence and opportunity. The application of this explanatory model through QCA and case study research reveals that there is not one factor that explains Delegations’ activity levels, but rather that various explanatory factors interact. This includes factors such as high motivation at the individual diplomat level, having a highly involved Head of Delegation who promotes climate and energy diplomacy within the Delegation, the availability of sufficient issue-specific funding in the partner country, being placed in a more democratic country context that allows to implement more activities towards multiple stakeholders, etc. While the findings proved the utility of the multi-factorial model, limitations of the approach chosen were also identified, for instance regarding the differences between EU Delegation and wider European activities (speaking to patterns of European cooperation abroad) and the relevance of local perceptions of the role that the EU could (or should) play in the host country (speaking to the relevance of taking a decentred perspective on EU diplomacy).

The study generates relevant insights and literature contributions in five ways. First, the study advances academia’s understanding of how EU Delegations work across the globe (going beyond single-country/region studies). It thus offers an empirical contribution to deepening academia’s understanding of Delegations as distinct actors within EU diplomacy. Second, the study offers a relevant empirical and conceptual contribution regarding the emergence of sectoral diplomacies within the EU, including insights on the implementation of climate and energy diplomacy for policy-makers. Third, the study offers a conceptual contribution by linking the concept of actorness with insights of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). The developed conceptual model represents a fruitful avenue for future conceptual reflection and empirical testing in actorness research and encourages further exchanges between FPA and European Studies. Fourth, the study contributes to the ongoing conceptual and policy debate on how to decentre studies of the EU’s foreign policy and impact in partner countries. Through the fieldwork insights in particular, the dissertation takes the difference that the local context of EU diplomacy makes seriously. Fifth, the research approach illustrates the added-value of the chosen mixed methods approach, such as the strength of QCA for studying complex phenomena with a multi-factorial conceptual model.