Prof. Susan Park1
1University Of Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Susan Park is Professor of Global Governance in International Relations at the University of Sydney. She focuses on how international organisations and global governance can become greener and more accountable, particularly in the transition to renewable energy. She has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, Oxford University, the Technical University of Munich, American University, and the Centennial Centre in Washington DC. Her work has been funded by the Australian, Canadian, British and German governments.
Abstract:
The future of the international order remains contested with both US and Chinese activities supporting and undermining the postwar international economic order. The climate crisis has led to the ‘sustainability-security nexus’ where states’ energy security dovetails with environmental ambitions. Resource nationalism is driving the race for critical minerals for the renewable energy transition, spurring protectionism and reinvigorating domestic manufacturing with implications for the maintenance of the international trade regime. This paper examines states regulatory response to Chinese dominance in critical minerals processing, highlighting the positive and negative environmental implications of Western regulatory responses, while identifying a further undermining of multilateral free trade arrangements based on internationalism and legalism that have underpinned the international order since 1945.