The four motors initiative: cooperation and governability, amid energy resources scarcity and climate change dynamics

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Since 1988, the four motors initiative has offered a joint cooperative framework to the territories of Catalonia, Baden-Württemberg (BW), Lombardy and Rhône-Alpes (currently Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, AURA). In this, the paradiplomacy means of non-state actors and regions has been evolving to a more diverse political participation of regional territories in what was once a traditional matter. The network has expanded from purely economic aspects to a diverse portfolio of activities. The complexity of the regions and the cooperative elements that have emerged from the working framework will be examined in a comparative framework that will explore the regions' energy needs during times when the transition towards sustainable energy models is generating significant pressures due to the growing speed of environmental deterioration and its implications for climate change as a result of global warming. This paper proposes a research framework that will examine how the different regions are developing energy resource management and related policies, their interlinked dynamics with careful consideration given to their implications for water management as a critical resource for economic development and progress.

The beginning of the Four Motors initiative was defined by an initial distinction between regionalization being the outcome of a natural location phenomenon, which led to closer economic ties and regionalism, which intended to create preferential- trading arrangements (Lorenz, 1992). This remained true for most of the advanced industrialized regions in Europe, Asia and America. Nonetheless, the development of globalization paradigms pushed regional and local actors to integrate within international geopolitical dynamics and decisions that are hand in hand with financial and economic development. Since the 1970s, financial markets have evolved towards a gradual state of globalization, stirring further structural change and transformation including developments in information processing technologies and governments' deregulation policies that have implications and spillover effects on how economic and political systems functions (Allen 2023:1).

The paper seeks to explore and define a correct link between the governability of energy and water resources management policies, based on the comparative performance of the regions conforming to the Four Motors initiative. By doing this, the project will analyse the positioning of those regions in global value chains, in the context of supply restructuring and reallocation and facing the risk of decoupling.

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