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It is less clear how these broadly strategic objectives can be achieved by a reliance on essentially short-termist market policies. While the Commission believes that greater competition and market access will deliver energy security, it is not clear how such an approach can be pursued if energy suppliers are not willing to comply. Moreover, there are signs, for example in the way that state aids rules permit support for energy conservation and renewables, that the Commission recognises that there are serious market failures in the energy sector and that other policy mechanisms may be needed.

Energy policy, in other words, needs to take account of the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ – essentially the principle that policy should be made at the most appropriate level for the problem being addressed. , 1993). It is clear that many of the problems are just too big for governments to manage individually. However, while the problems may need an international response, in many ways the feasibility of action becomes more limited as the number (and the diversity) of nation states increases. And while each state may recognise a need for international action, they are ultimately caught in a prisoner’s dilemma: how far should a government act knowing that other governments may not reciprocate.

Global primary energy consumption nearly doubled between 1971 and 2004, with the rate of growth in developing countries greatly exceeding that in the industrialised world. The share of the OECD in global primary energy consumption fell from 60 per cent to 50 per cent over this period, but in 2004 per capita energy use and carbon emissions in the OECD were four times greater than in the rest of the world. But this picture is changing, with important implications for resource availability and environmental impacts.