Constitutionalization and Entrepreneurship: Explaining Increased EU Steering of Renewables Support Schemes

This article sheds light on two under-researched issue areas: the energy policy-shaping role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and how constitutionalization of EU state aid law gives the European Commission (Commission) increased leverage over EU policy development. EU state aid governance is embedded in the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU’s prohibition of state aid. The CJEU and the Commissions’ Directorate-General for Competition (DG Comp) have played important roles in the emergence of stronger EU steering of renewable energy support schemes after 2014. For many years, powerful member states, most notably Germany, stopped the adoption of EU rules requiring more market streamlining and European harmonization of renewables support. This primarily played out in regular EU decision-making (co-decision) related to adoption and revision of the Renewable Energy Directive. A radical shift occurred in 2014 when the Commission introduced new guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and energy, giving the Commission increased authority over development of renewables support schemes across Europe. These guidelines called for renewables investments to become more exposed to energy market pricing and introduced auctioning as the main allocation mechanism. Support schemes for renewable energy were included for the first time in the EU state aid guidelines for environmental protection in 2001. Back then, member states had ample leeway to design support schemes as they pleased. The 2014 version of the guidelines includes far more detailed requirements. While the first CJEU ruling on renewables state aid hindered the Commission to intervene, new CJEU rulings after 2008 enabled the Commission to draft more restrictive guidelines. This article concludes that constitutionalization, combined with the policy entrepreneurship of Commission officials, explains the shift in EU steering in 2014. This indicates that constitutionalization and Commission entrepreneurship should be assessed in conjunction. Constitutionalization may be particularly important in the state aid area due to the superior competence of the Commission

Chapter 21 Differentiated integration in EU climate policy

EU climate policy is characterized by significant degrees of differentiated integration. Although the two topics complement each other, differentiated integration and studies of EU climate policy have rarely been studied in conjunction. To address this gap, we develop a three-fold conceptualization that makes it possible to explore differentiation during the course of a policy cycle: policy output differentiation, policy outcome differentiation and policy impact differentiation. Our examination of two key elements of EU climate policy legislation—emissions trading and renewables policy—shows that differentiated integration is an uneven and multi-directional process that varies over time. We argue that differentiation is an important enabler for concerted action in EU climate policy and that differentiation at the policy output and outcome stages may facilitate greater harmonization at the impact stage. Differentiation at the impact and outcome level of the three (idealtype) policy stages does not automatically reflect differentiation at the output policy stage; it is rather that output differentiation may facilitate both high and low levels of differentiation at these later stages

Klimaskapte beslutningsendringer? : en analyse av klimahensyn i petroleumspolitiske beslutningsprosesser

”Klimaskapte beslutningsendringer?” er en analyse av norske myndigheters håndtering av klimahensyn i forbindelse med utlysning og tildeling av utvinningskonsesjoner og behandling av olje- og gassutbygginger i perioden mellom 1997 og 2004. Oppgaven viser i hvilken grad og hvilken måte klimahensyn er organisert inn i petroleumspolitiske beslutningsprosesser og svarer på hvorfor klimahensyn er organisert inn i en slik grad og på en slik måte. Både utlysning og tildeling av utvinningskonsesjoner er formelt definert som miljøpolitiske situasjoner, men fordi klimahensyn i liten grad er tatt opp i kulturen i forvaltningen blir ikke klimahensyn organisert inn. Myndighetene bruker ikke disse prosessene til å gi formelle føringer for hvordan selskapene skal håndtere klimahensyn ved eventuell seinere utvinning. Dette reduserer mulighetene til å trekke inn klimahensyn når utbyggingsplanene behandles. Den formelle organisasjonsstrukturen virker styrende for aktørenes situasjonsoppfattelse og identitetsforståelse, men mangelen på formelle regler gjør at aktørene i stor grad følger uformelle normer. Klimahensyn er svakt organisert inn ved behandlingen av utbygginger. Situasjonen er både formelt og uformelt definert som klimapolitisk, men reglene embetsverket følger er ikke avledet av Norges Kyotoforpliktelse. Det er stort sett forvaltningen som tar initiativ i petroleumspolitikken, ikke regjeringen. I klimapolitikken er situasjonen motsatt. Utviklingen går i retning av at mulighetene for demokratisk styring og kontroll av petroleumspolitikken snevres inn. Gjennom å gi forsiktige, og uklare styringssignaler i forhold til klimahensyn har regjeringene likevel til en viss grad påvirket i hvilken grad og på hvilken måte klimahensyn håndteres. Siden regjeringene ikke har hatt et klart ønske om at Kyotoforpliktelsen skal legges til grunn for beslutningsprosessene, har embetsverkets egne tradisjoner og dagsordener blitt dominerende. Kombinasjonen av at petroleumsforvaltningen har store maktressurser og sterk, enhetlig kultur samt at miljøvernforvaltningen har liten formell makt og embetsverk med usikker og ukoordinert opptreden, gjør det vanskelig for regjeringen å trekke inn klimahensyn i petroleumspolitiske prosesser. Det er utviklet gode koordineringsmekanismer for utformingen av stortingsmeldinger om klimapolitikk, men ikke for gjennomføring av vedtakene. Derfor får disse meldingene liten betydning for håndtering av klimahensyn i sektorvise beslutningsprosesser. Svakt internt samhold, lite enhetlig kultur og uklar rolleoppfattelse i forhold til klimahensyn gjør at miljøvernforvaltningen i liten grad bruker sine deltagelsesrettigheter til å trekke inn klimahensyn i petroleumspolitiske beslutningsprosesser. Petroleumsforvaltningens frihet til å utøve skjønn, dominansen av petroleumsfaglige eksperter og det nære forhold til næringen bidrar til at politiske og moralske spørsmål om klimahensyn omdefineres til faglige spørsmål og debatter om kostnadseffektivitet. I den grad det tas klimahensyn er det miljøenhetene i petroleumsforvaltningen som sørger for dette. Disse har vokst frem gradvis, og på en delvis uplanlagt måte. Aktørene her har vært åpne for regjeringenes vage signaler om å trekke inn klimahensyn, men handlingsvalgene styres av de uformelle normene som dominerer i petroleumsforvaltningen. Ekspertstyret hemmer klimahensyn i å bli organisert inn i beslutningsprosessene og miljøenhetene i petroleumsforvaltningen er ikke sterke nok til å oppveie for dette. Funnene i oppgaven kan ha relevans for faglige debatter om integrering av miljøhensyn i sektorpolitikken og implementering av internasjonale miljøregimer. Dersom regjeringene ønsker å organisere klimahensyn inn i sektorvise beslutningsprosesser, er det utvilsomt en fordel om de klart prioriterer klimahensyn i målstrukturen, men dette er lettere sagt enn gjort. Politikernes styringsmuligheter begrenses av asymmetri i makt- og informasjonsstrukturer, nedarvede uformell normer og verdier og ikke minst forskjeller i institusjonaliseringsgrad mellom ulike deler av forvaltningen

Climate governance entrepreneurship: Emerging findings and a new research agenda

This is an introductory paper to a special issue on climate governance entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurship is understood as acts performed by actors seeking to ‘punch above their weight’. By contrast, actors who are merely doing their job are not ‘entrepreneurs’. In order to understand climate policy and governance, we need to learn more about the factors that condition variance in entrepreneurial activity, strategies and success. In this introduction, we present a comprehensive review of the literature on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in policy in governance, with special attention to the recent upsurge in studies of climate governance entrepreneurship. We distinguish two types of entrepreneurship: (1) acts aimed at enhancing governance influence by altering the distribution of authority and information; and (2) acts aimed at altering or diffusing norms and cognitive frameworks, worldviews or institutional logics. The contributions in this special issue offer valuable insights into how personal motivations, policy windows, international trends, cultural-institutional traditions and the distribution of structural power influence entrepreneurship. However, more work is needed – not least as regards whether actors that seek change are more active and/or more successful as entrepreneurs compared to those that defend the status quo, and whether there is more successful entrepreneurship in public or in private arenas of governance

Entrepreneurship in climate governance at the local and regional levels:concepts, methods, patterns, and effects

This editorial sets the scene for a special issue on climate governance entrepreneurship at the local and regional levels. To make climate governance work, much policy activity is needed at the local and regional levels. Entrepreneurs are actors who aim to affect change by using their agency. They target policy decisions at the local and regional levels, which might subsequently turn to other governance levels to expand their influence. The scientific discussion about governance entrepreneurs is characterized by a lack of conceptual clarity, by methodological challenges, and by several research gaps. Regarding the latter, at present, it is especially unclear when and why entrepreneurs become active, which factors they take into account when they select their strategies, and what explains the effects of entrepreneurial activity on the emergence of innovations in climate governance. All contributions to this special issue engage with one or several of these conceptual, methodological, and empirical challenges, thus advancing the state of art in the field. Highlights from the special issue include the development of a simple conceptual frame that connects actors, contexts, strategies, and outcomes in a systematic way. Some promising methodological avenues are described, since the special issue contains not only some qualitative case studies but also some studies that take a long-term perspective by following policy development for decades, and a study that proposes a census approach. Empirically, the contributions in this special issue shed light on a range of factors explaining levels of entrepreneurial activity, and they carefully trace impacts over time. We conclude by sketching an agenda for further work in this realm

Chapter 21 Differentiated integration in EU climate policy

EU climate policy is characterized by significant degrees of differentiated integration. Although the two topics complement each other, differentiated integration and studies of EU climate policy have rarely been studied in conjunction. To address this gap, we develop a three-fold conceptualization that makes it possible to explore differentiation during the course of a policy cycle: policy output differentiation, policy outcome differentiation and policy impact differentiation. Our examination of two key elements of EU climate policy legislation—emissions trading and renewables policy—shows that differentiated integration is an uneven and multi-directional process that varies over time. We argue that differentiation is an important enabler for concerted action in EU climate policy and that differentiation at the policy output and outcome stages may facilitate greater harmonization at the impact stage. Differentiation at the impact and outcome level of the three (idealtype) policy stages does not automatically reflect differentiation at the output policy stage; it is rather that output differentiation may facilitate both high and low levels of differentiation at these later stages

Klimatpolitiska rådets rapport 2023

Stigande halter av växthusgaser i atmosfären har rubbat balansen i jordens klimatsystem vilket har medfört en snabbt stigande global medeltemperatur. Den globala uppvärmningen ligger nu på drygt 1,1 grader jämfört med förindustriell tid. Utöver högre temperaturer har detta lett till fler extrema väderhändelser, smältande isar och stigande havsnivåer. De ekologiska, ekonomiska och sociala effekterna av klimatförändringarna blir allt påtagligare