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Governing Renewable Energy in the EU: Confronting a Governance Dilemma

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Abstract

Promoting renewable energy sources (RES) has been addressed a key strategy for mitigating climate change, the governing in which has turned out a challenging and protracted task for the EU. There is often an implicit assumption that concern for climate change drives energy policy, but a closer look at the development of European RES policy indicates how EU governors have had to confront a range of governance dilemmas in trying to balance various objectives and conflicting interests. Therefore, while energy security and environmental concerns have provided a rationale for crafting renewable energy as a specific EU policy domain, the main driver for RES policy coordination has been internal market concerns, and not the concern about an impending climate catastrophe. More recently, rising concerns about energy insecurity and climate change have forced the EU to seek greater policy coordination in the context of more integrated energy markets. Although seemingly propitious for further harmonisation, it is doubtful whether the Member States and their citizens are yet prepared to accept new efforts towards deeper integration of European energy policy.

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Notes

  1. The article is based on research conducted within the ADAM project (www.adamproject.eu) as presented in Jordan et al (2010).

  2. In eighteen Member States the main support mechanism is feed-in tariffs or feed-in premiums (price-based). In seven Member States, tradeable green certificates/quota systems (quantity-based) have been introduced (SEC(2008) 57; IEA, 2008).

  3. The EU deployment of RES is rapidly growing, although when viewed against the agreed targets (12 per cent by 2010; 20 per cent by 2020) performance is insufficient. In 2008, the EU RES share was 10.3 per cent of final energy consumption compared to 8.5 per cent in 2005 and 6.3 per cent in 1991 (COM(2008) 30; SEC(2011) 130). Renewable power increased to 16.6 per cent of gross electricity consumption and biofuels to 3.5 per cent of transport fuel consumption in 2008 (SEC(2011) 130), still short of the indicative 2010 targets (21 per cent; 5.75 per cent). The Commission estimates that Member States will reach only 19 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, by 2010 but considers the new RES Directive to be satisfactory to support ongoing growth in wind and solar energy, although additional efforts are required to accelerate biomass energy (COM(2009) 192).

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Correspondence to Roger Hildingsson.

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Hildingsson, R., Stripple, J. & Jordan, A. Governing Renewable Energy in the EU: Confronting a Governance Dilemma. Eur Polit Sci 11, 18–30 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2011.8

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