0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Britain and Germany are two countries that are internationally recognised for their energy efficiency policies in the area of domestic buildings. Although pursuing similar objectives, the two countries have quite different flagship policies: Germany put in place a large loan and grant scheme to finance residential energy efficiency measures in 2001, the CO2-Building Rehabilitation Programme. The UK was the first country in Europe that introduced Energy savings obligations in 1994. Since then the policy instruments in both countries experienced significant change. This thesis explores the politics of the changes that occurred, and investigates the policy processes that led to the modifications. Mainstream theories of policy change emphasise short-term crisis-like events when it comes to explaining why policies change significantly. However, more recent theoretical approaches suggest that gradual mechanisms, including accumulating external pressures and slowly developing consequences of the policies themselves, play an important role as well. In order to approach the two cases theoretically, this thesis draws on the concept of friction developed in Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and the policy feedback literature. This thesis investigates how long-term pressures, for example the perceived impact of climate change and rising energy prices, affected the evolution of the key home energy efficiency policies in Britain and Germany. Combined with assessing the impact of institutional changes and policy feedback, a comprehensive analysis of long-term policy change is carried out. A set of different methods is employed to undertake the investigation including qualitative and quantitative research methods such as semi-structured interviews with more than 25 experts followed by qualitative content analysis, complementary document analysis, and the review of data sets. The analysis provides a detailed historical case study of the key home energy efficiency policy instruments in Germany and the UK with a focus on the causal mechanisms of gradual pressures. Wider conclusions are drawn for the theories of policy change and how gradual pressures might be accounted for in those theories in a more meaningful way.

Despite the UK’s abundance of renewable energy sources and the imperative for renewable energy to make a significant contribution to addressing the problems of climate change and fossil-fuel dependency, renewable energy capacity in the UK has developed slowly compared with some other EU states. The UK has introduced a succession of policies to promote renewable energy, but so far these have failed to meet national and EU targets. This signals the need for detailed examination of the reasons for these ‘failures’ and, in particular, the extent, nature and constraints on ‘policy learning’ within UK renewable energy policy. Policy learning has emerged in recent years as an innovative way of exploring the roles of knowledge acquisition and use in policy change. This study examines the contribution of policy learning to the development of UK renewable energy policy. It is argued that interpreting UK renewable energy policy development through the lens of policy learning yields fresh perspectives on why policies develop in certain directions and not others. In so doing, it critically examines problems caused by failings in policy learning and identifies options for the further promotion of renewable energies in the UK. The study distinguishes four different forms of policy learning: technical, conceptual, social and political. Little research has been conducted on the characteristics of these different learning types, the conditions under which they occur, the psychological, institutional and cultural factors that stimulate or constrain learning, and how they interact to shape policy change. The study utilises a qualitative methodology to analyse and explain changes in UK renewable energy policy over the past 20 years. The main methods employed are content analysis of policy documents (including legislative acts and instruments, consultations and select committee reports); and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from government, industry, NGOs, academia and the media. It is argued in the thesis that UK energy policy has tended to become ‘locked’ into low-level forms of technical learning because current government learning mechanisms do not challenge the parameters of existing policy and, thus, fail to stimulate broader processes of conceptual and social learning that might encourage more radical policy change. These forms of policy learning are particularly constrained by hierarchical institutional structures that hinder communication and learning between policy areas. Furthermore, the current style of policy making for renewable energy in the UK privileges the interests of incumbent energy companies, giving them the ability to filter or block new ideas that do not align with their commercial interests. Political learning was shown to operate alongside other types of policy learning and to take multiple forms but focused predominantly on political risk management rather than political innovation: thus, it tended to narrow rather than extend the parameters of debate. These findings were used to develop a model of policy learning in UK renewable energy policy. This was used to conceptualise relationships between different learning types, highlight specific barriers to policy learning, and illustrate dynamics of policy learning and change that might be extended to other policy areas and countries. Finally, it is argued that many of the barriers identified might be overcome by fostering more evidence-based policy making and learning mechanisms that engage with a broader range of stakeholders to stimulate more pluralistic government processes.

Current proxy indicators of innovation although insightful, tend to provide more relevance in both larger scale markets, (such as in the pharmaceuticals or electronics industry) and for codifiable innovative activity, (such as patents and bibliometrics). These measures could be capitalised on further if a more robust measure of functionality performance that included informal innovative activity could be gained to help assess the overall performance of the system under inspection. This work uses the emerging UK wave energy sector as a primary case study to explore early stage innovation systems through the novel application of network analysis as well as existing innovation systems theory. It was hoped that a clearer understanding of which metrics were related to which system functionality and how representative they were would help to create more robust and transferable measures of emergent system functionality. The question as to whether this increased confidence and insight into system operation could allow for benchmarking comparisons between spatially or socially different emerging innovative networks, such as different countries or stakeholder types was then addressed, as well as wether this could provide a higher level of efficacy to applied policy support? A further goal of this work was to assess the current wave energy sector through these methodologies and provide insightful feedback into activity, potential opportunities and threats present within the system. The main methodological findings show that the novel application of Social Network Analysis provided a strongly correlated and insightful metric of innovative activity however (as with established metrics), there were clearl limitations on applicability and that a ‘one size fits all’ application of methods is not available for any innovation assessment tools. Additionally, many existing metrics used within analysis are often un-clearly defined or presented leaving largely presumptuous levels of interpretation within the final analysis. Sectoral findings showed a range of narratives regarding the sector. Clear prominence of Scotland and higher levels of all system functionality within the country make it a strong performer within the system. Likewise, a lack of coherent and ‘first-past-the-post’ funding policy has produced a ‘gating’ of technology support that in turn has disillusioned many early device developers while pulling out a fortunate few. This ‘Mathew Effect’ within the system may (among other things) leave the sector open to system shocks from outside competition and reduce the level of market entrance due to a perception of unfair or secretive support provision.

The UK government has committed to challenging climate change and renewable energy obligations to 2020 and beyond. The renewable electricity sector remains a key focus in meeting these targets, given the critical need to decarbonise the power sector in the longer term. This has led to an ambitious renewable electricity sectoral target of 30 percent of total electricity generation from renewable sources (RES-E) by 2020, corresponding to a deployment target of 35-40GW of installed capacity. In 2011, RES-E deployment stood at 12.3GW, resulting in the UK requiring 23-28GW of additional renewable electricity technology (RET) deployment in eight years. This requires a substantial amount of new RET capacity be adopted, the majority anticipated to come from a four large-scale (>5MW) technologies (onshore and offshore wind, biomass conversion and dedicated biomass). However, large-scale renewable deployment has consistently under-performed against previous targets and other policy objectives. There are a number of failures that historically and currently act as constraints to RET deployment. This thesis categories those constraints as either internal or external failures. Internal failures are due to the design of the subsidy mechanism used to promote renewable deployment (type of mechanism, how it operates, revenue risk, investment (lender) risk, subsidy support levels and mechanism complexity). External failures are those constraints out-with the direct control of the mechanism (planning, network, public participation and engagement and policy risk). These constraints need to be addressed. This thesis has carried out an evaluation of the current UK approach to large-scale RET deployment to 2020 and beyond by adopting a systemic framework approach to determine whether or not the UK will be successful in addressing the potential constraints – the internal and external failures – to deployment. The systemic approach is based on three key criteria regarding the potential constraints: a comprehensive set of constraints, analysed in-depth and taking into account the interaction of the constraints in a systemic fashion. In contrast, the government approach to dealing with these potential constraints has typically focused on failures in isolation; also government commissioned modelling and existing research does not take into account all of the internal and external failures and/or examine them in-depth. Critically, no research has analysed the systemic interactions. With this approach, this research aims to fill the gap in extant knowledge and analysis due to the absence of existing research meeting the key criteria. This thesis was carried out by a textual analysis of key policy documents and legislation that form the basis of the UK government’s current approach to addressing the barriers to RET deployment. The method of inquiry utilised here is that of the qualitative research approach. The results show that there are significant systemic interactions between the internal and external failures (internal>internal; external>external; and internal to external and vice versa). There are also a number of feedbacks, specifically between grid>planning and public participation and engagement>planning. This creates systemic imbalances and unresolved tensions between the constraints. Importantly, the systemic interactions impact disproportionately on the key RETs, with a particular emphasis on onshore and offshore wind. By not addressing potential constraints from a systemic perspective, the current UK approach discriminates in favour of a system highly dependent on large-scale developments, of a few select RETs by a limited number of developers of a particular type (typically ex-utility, large-scale). This limits the focus on social and behavioural issues, particularly in terms of participation and engagement in ownership, decision-making and reducing the role of small-scale, independent and community group participation. In conclusion, under the current approach, decisions will be made on a separate ad-hoc basis leading to continual reform and adjustment with less clarity of where the risks lie. Increasing deployment year-by-year will only accumulate and intensify the potential constraints with limited options to address this. Effectively, government can only buy or control its way out of the constraints. In contrast, a systemic approach offers policy makers a way out of this. By providing an overview of the system and identification of systemic interactions in an early and novel way, this approach offers the opportunity for pragmatic decision-making at the systemic level leading to more predictable routes to solving problems via focused reforms, thus mitigating risks to a greater extent and redefining the system in a more optimal and resilient way. In other words, it allows government to connect the dots in addressing potential constraints to deployment.

Over the last twenty-five years, fuel poverty in England has successfully transitioned from niche academic interest to mandated concern of the state. More recently still, government have opted to charge energy suppliers with primary delivery responsibility for fuel poverty programmes. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is in offering a novel comparative analysis of the potential for the state and energy suppliers to effectively support fuel poor households. This research offers one of the first academic assessments of the new suite of policies championed by the coalition government formed in 2010. It is also amongst the first pieces of work to apply and critically assess the new official metric for fuel poverty, the Low Income, High Costs definition. By assessing delivery choices against the tenets of neoliberalism identified as guiding recent UK governments, the work further takes into account the motivations of policymakers. A diverse methodological approach is applied, incorporating policy evaluation, quantitative analysis, synthesis of existing literature, and professional engagement. This research establishes that in passing the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, politicians did not appreciate the demands of the commitment to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. Subsequently, supplier obligations initially intended as a means of mitigating climate change have become the primary policy tool for tackling fuel poverty. The evidence presented here suggests, however, that suppliers are inherently poorly suited to this task for a variety of reasons: their access to the data required to successfully identify fuel poor households is limited; they fund activity in a manner that is unavoidably regressive; and the extent to which they are able to deliver programmes more efficiently than the state is, particularly for economic interventions, subject to question. It is consequently argued that, whilst supplier obligations are likely to appeal to an austerity-driven, neoliberal government as an expedient means of keeping expenditure away from the public purse and of limiting the role of the state, this work demonstrates that increased government involvement and greater political ambition will be required if fuel poverty policies are to be successful.

The safe extraction of shale gas resources has become a controversial issue in the energy sector and within energy law and policy circle. These issues have transcended to other areas of the society such as the environment, public health, and geopolitics. In fact, in environmental issue and regulation, it has become a norm in the minds of many that finding a model individual to do the right thing is a onerous task. One solution to this problem currently would be to realise the benefits energy resource extraction presents by devising the right regulatory strategies to improve the compliance level of those operating such risky activity to do the right thing. However, the strategic solutions to achieve the benefits are not that complex when compared with the strategic measures for achieving compliance to set regulatory standards for mitigating risks from energy extraction activity. This thesis argue for a complementary regulatory instrument mix (self-regulation and command & control regulatory strategies) to improve effective compliance for mitigating risks associated with energy extractive and consumption activities. One fundamental problem for this disparity is that the available regulatory strategies and approaches are fraught with diverse limitations that makes it unable to accommodate the dynamic of energy resource extraction. Also, industry and regulators of such activity's dependence on regulatory approaches has been centred on command and control regulation that inhibits the incentive for the operator to go beyond the set standards. Hence, the urgency to devise an effective framework to balance costs that comes with the quest to relaise the benefits from resource extraction activities and the need for the preservation of the environment and health. Though achieving full compliance is far-fetched but optimal compliance is achievable within the context of collective participation amongst all industry players. One pragmatic means of achieving these conflicting interests within the global energy sector is through alternatives or a combination of regulatory instrument mixes (self-regulation and command and control regulation). This thesis intends that these alternatives should serve as complements to the command and control regulation and not to replace them. Such alternatives to regulation which this thesis argue and formulate that can help mitigate especially water contamination risk which has an increased frequency of occurrence is what it calls: 'the risk/segment based strict liability rule.' In addition, 'self-regulation' as a complement to command and control environmental regulation. While self-regulation helps to address the problem of information asymmetry that regulation grapple with, the risk based strict liability rule helps to address risks that have a highly probable or increased frequency level of occurrence. By risk based strict liability rule being proposed in this thesis, it means a risk from an activity can be subject to a strict liability cause of action without necessarily subjecting the entire activity to stricter environmental laws. This is based on the legal rationale that where particular risks' has an increased frequency level of occurrence or the impacts could lead to transgenerational harm, it should be classified as abnormal. Therefore, should be subject to strict liability cause of action. Thus, the philosophy behind this thesis is to see how regulation can deal with particular risks under strict liability when they have an increased frequency to occur and not necessarily the entire activity. Thus, the significance of this thesis is that it resonates the ability of self-regulation and liability systems to direct the costs of the harms to those who create them. More so, these innovative policy options embedded in the properties of self-regulation and liability system will force operators to incur additional costs needed to forestall or control their actions that might result in externalities beyond the socially optimal level. Thus, environmental governance through self-regulatory and risk/segment liability rule systems as alternatives to command and control regulation will erode that complacency on the part of the creators of such possible negative impacts to act sustain-ably. These alternatives to command and control regulation are cogent in mitigating risks associated with shale gas as an energy source on two grounds. Based on the above problems, this thesis shall examine the critical question of whether stricter environmental liability and regulatory approaches is required to achieve a sustainable shale gas extraction. Also, what other features should be included in these environmental protectionist tools to achieve effectiveness in managing water contamination and dispersed risks associated with fracking activity. This thesis, argue for a stricter liability and regulatory approach as a complement to the limitations of command and control regulation with some added features to address dispersed harms associated with energy extraction activity especially the risk of water contamination.

The aim of my thesis is to analyze the energy policy in Germany and its future development. There are many external and internal factors influencing the way how the energy policy is going to evolve. One of these factors is the common European energy policy. In order to cover its energy demand, EU is forced to establish a comprehensive energy policy on the European level. The increasing pressure caused by the combination of external and internal factors calls for better cooperation on this field. The key element of the future energy policy in EU will be the renewable sources of energy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-174).

In recent years, proponents of 'green and clean fuel' have argued that the costs of overreliance on fossil fuels could be reduced through transition to biofuels such as bio-ethanol. Global biofuel discourses suggest that any transition to biofuel invariably results in significant benefits, including energy independence, job creation, development of agro-industrial centres at local level and high revenue generations for the state with minimum negative impacts on the environment. With many risks and costs associated with traditional 'dirty' fuels, it is likely that many countries, particularly African countries, will move towards the 'green and clean fuel' alternative. However, until recently research has arguably paid limited attention to the local livelihood impacts related to land acquisition for biofuel development or the policy frameworks required to maximise biofuel benefits. With regards to biofuel benefits, some recent studies suggest that the much bandied potential for greater tax revenue, lowered fuel costs and wealth distribution from biofuel production have all been perverted with relatively little payoff in wage labour opportunities in return (e.g. Richardson, 2010; Wilkinson and Herrera, 2010). Based on work done in Chisumbanje communal lands of Zimbabwe (Thondhlana, 2015), this policy brief highlights the local livelihood impacts of biofuel development and discusses policy implications of the findings. By highlighting the justifications of biofuel development at any cost by the state, the study sheds some light on the conflicts between state interests and local livelihood needs.