Local authorities as niche actors: the case of energy governance in the UK

This paper draws from work conducted under the NERC-funded project 'Understanding energy governance at local and community levels'(Project Reference: NE/H013598/1). This project was a 24 month study carried out in collaboration with the UK Energy Research Council which began in April 2010. The particular workpackage from which these interviews were drawn specifically explores the role of local authorities in emerging energy and environmental responsibilities, paying particular attention to current institutional structures and how external forces and actors influence local authorities on their decision making and practices. It is concluded that whilst the role of local authorities has been changing in response to energy and environmental ‘landscape’ issues, their influence on the design and implementation of energy policy in the UK will correspondingly remain as an emerging process for the foreseeable future, with the more progressive local authorities continuing to exert political, social/cultural and technological influence over ways of designing, articulating, and engaging with energy governance at the local level

The role of social norms in incentivising energy reduction in organisations

This study was part of a collaborative trial for an energy feedback intervention, providing detailed individual desk based energy feedback information to help individuals reduce energy in an office environment. Although the intervention was individually based, this paper explores the social context in which the intervention took place, and in particular attempted to measure changes in normative influence (descriptive and injunctive norms) around specific energy services, before and after the intervention. Results from the study identified that social norms around certain energy services changed as a result of the intervention, and the level of descriptive norms was found to have an effect on the energy efficiency of participants. Additionally interviews which were carried out during the study are insightful in helping understand how norms emerge and spread with the influence of social context and related factors. Interviews indicate strong interactions between technologies/technology policy and social context. The findings are highly relevant in the current age of fast paced technology change where businesses and governments often make decisions on what ICT technologies shall be introduced and used (such as smart metering), without fully considering the two way relationship between these technologies and social context

Community solar initiatives in the United States of America: comparisons with – and lessons for – the UK and other European countries

Solar energy systems that are increasingly economic with regard to their design, delivery and operating costs, hold the potential to contribute considerably to a nation’s energy mix. While solar generation comes in many forms, ‘shared solar’, or a community-based system with an array size intermediate between a large-field and an individual residential system, offers many advantages that utility-scale projects are not able to deliver. The aim of this paper is to examine the development of shared solar initiatives in the recent history of US energy policy in order to reveal lessons that could be applied to future renewable energy generation in other developed nations including the UK and other European countries. Specifically the paper offers original appraisal of the ‘solar gardens’ scheme being trialled in Minnesota, drawing on findings from a survey with over 650 respondents representing a range of local renewable energy organizations and their customers. We examine the salience and influence of four key factors, namely: (i) perceived individual benefits; (ii) sources and trustworthiness of information; (iii) location; and (iv) project financing. Taken together the findings contribute understanding on the potential for community solar projects to assist in the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient energy future

Public values and community energy: lessons from the US and UK

This paper examines some of the normative aspects of community energy programmes — defined here as decentralized forms of energy production and distributed energy technologies where production decisions are made as close as possible to sources of consumption. Such projects might also display a degree of separation from the formal political process. The development of a community energy system often generates a great deal of debate about both the degree of public support for such programmes and the values around which programmes ought to be organized. Community energy programmes also raise important issues regarding the energy choice problem, including questions of process, that is, by whom a project is developed and the influence of both community and exogenous actors, as well as certain outcome issues regarding the spatial and social distribution of energy. The case studies, drawn from community energy programmes in both the United States and the United Kingdom, allow for a careful examination of all of these factors, considering in particular the complex interplay and juxtaposition between the ideas of 'public value' and 'public values'

Behaviour change in the UK climate debate : an assessment of responsibility, agency and political dimensions

This paper explores the politics around the role of agency in the UK climate change debate. Government interventions on the demand side of consumption have increasingly involved attempts to obtain greater traction with the values, attitudes and beliefs of citizens in relation to climate change and also in terms of influencing consumer behaviour at an individual level. With figures showing that approximately 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are attributable to household and transport behaviour, policy initiatives have progressively focused on the facilitation of “sustainable behaviours”. Evidence suggests however, that mobilisation of pro-environmental attitudes in addressing the perceived “value-action gap” has so far had limited success. Research in this field suggests that there is a more significant and nuanced “gap” between context and behaviour; a relationship that perhaps provides a more adroit reflection of reasons why people do not necessarily react in the way that policy-makers anticipate. Tracing the development of the UK Government’s behaviour change agenda over the last decade, we posit that a core reason for the limitations of this programme relates to an excessively narrow focus on the individual. This has served to obscure some of the wider political and economic aspects of the debate in favour of a more simplified discussion. The second part of the paper reports findings from a series of focus groups exploring some of the wider political views that people hold around household energy habits, purchase and use of domestic appliances, and transport behaviour-and discusses these insights in relation to the literature on the agenda’s apparent limitations. The paper concludes by considering whether the aims of the Big Society approach (recently established by the UK’s Coalition Government) hold the potential to engage more directly with some of these issues or whether they merely constitute a “repackaging” of the individualism agenda

Reconciling economic efficiency and social needs? : the EU, Objective 1 and civil society in Wales

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Behaviour Change in the UK Climate Debate: An Assessment of Responsibility, Agency and Political Dimensions

This paper explores the politics around the role of agency in the UK climate change debate. Government interventions on the demand side of consumption have increasingly involved attempts to obtain greater traction with the values, attitudes and beliefs of citizens in relation to climate change and also in terms of influencing consumer behaviour at an individual level. With figures showing that approximately 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are attributable to household and transport behaviour, policy initiatives have progressively focused on the facilitation of “sustainable behaviours”. Evidence suggests however, that mobilisation of pro-environmental attitudes in addressing the perceived “value-action gap” has so far had limited success. Research in this field suggests that there is a more significant and nuanced “gap” between context and behaviour; a relationship that perhaps provides a more adroit reflection of reasons why people do not necessarily react in the way that policy-makers anticipate. Tracing the development of the UK Government’s behaviour change agenda over the last decade, we posit that a core reason for the limitations of this programme relates to an excessively narrow focus on the individual. This has served to obscure some of the wider political and economic aspects of the debate in favour of a more simplified discussion. The second part of the paper reports findings from a series of focus groups exploring some of the wider political views that people hold around household energy habits, purchase and use of domestic appliances, and transport behaviour-and discusses these insights in relation to the literature on the agenda’s apparent limitations. The paper concludes by considering whether the aims of the Big Society approach (recently established by the UK’s Coalition Government) hold the potential to engage more directly with some of these issues or whether they merely constitute a “repackaging” of the individualism agenda