Leaking energy externalities: exploring Mozambique-EU relations within the global energy market
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Liquified natural gas (LNG) has been labelled a transitional or ‘bridge’ fuel, promising to facilitate the global energy transition. However, despite lower emissions compared to other fossil fuels, LNG's production and distribution are equally enmeshed in contentious political economies. Recently, both Mozambique and the European Union (EU) have been affected by wars with significant impacts to their energy markets. While EU members states diversified gas suppliers, mostly by importing fracked gas from the United States (US), the insurgency in Mozambique altered plans to export LNG from the northern Province of Cabo Delgado. In this article, we explore the global business of energy production and distribution from the perspective of Mozambique's emerging LNG industry and its intersection with the EU's energy policies and other competing actors. Using the notions of externalities and leakages, we offer a critical analysis to the case of LNG in Cabo Delgado in the framework of the energy transition as well as in relation to the legacies of other extractive projects in Mozambique. We elaborate on social, economic, environmental, military and political externalities that connect the EU to Mozambique with implications to global energy markets. This case study builds on participant observation and interviews conducted throughout 2022-2023 and analyse the conjuncture related to investments in Cabo Delgado and the global energy markets ever since. We argue that global powers' discourses and policies – and the EU's in particular – towards energy transition are shaping Mozambique's energy landscape.
Source: Political Geography
Language: English
Subfield: General Energy
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,540
OpenAlex ID: W7221783569