Petropolitics

• The dominant trend was that oil and natural gas were first and foremost a matter of market mechanisms and competition rules, even if they interacted with politics and geopolitics. • The WTO persisted in treating hydrocarbons as commodities like any other, ignoring both their commons character and their impact on the environment and climate. • The conflict in Ukraine has caused an upheaval. Within a few months, Europe faced a serious threat of energy shortages. • In a few months, the rehabilitation of coal and nuclear power has shattered the results of long years of struggle, negotiation and compromise. In July 2022, the European Parliament awarded the "green energy" label to natural gas and nuclear power. • This leads us to reflect on the notion of petropolitics and its treatment in this context of crisis. In this note, we are interested in its origin, its different uses and meanings over time, and how it is defined differently in Northern and Southern countries.