Partnerships in implementing sustainability policies theoretical considerations and experiences from Spain

The greening of economic and industrial activities requires that new relationships be formed between private actors who often never met before on the business or policy arenas. To initiate and give direction to the sustainability transition, public actors may choose to become involved in partnerships for policy implementation, next to industrial prime movers. After having catalyzed the process, new forms of public-private partnerships may emerge, in the transition towards ‘green private-private partnerships’.\ud This paper presents theoretical considerations regarding the types and evolution of publicprivate partnerships (PPPs) involved in the implementation of sustainability policies. The central argument is that PPPs are themselves in a process of transition, with changes in the types of activity, types of investment and types of financing on which partnerships focus. Empirically, the paper analyses the greening of the electricity industry in Spain and looks specifically at the cases of wind electricity and biomass technologies’ diffusion. The evolution of PPPs shows clearly that there is a transition from ‘project-vehicle-partnerships’ to ‘technology-specific-partnerships’ to ‘renewables-development-partnerships’. In parallel there is a transition from ‘internally-financed-partnerships’ towards ‘bank-financedpartnerships’ with a substantially higher diffusion potential. Finally, another transition was observed from ‘learning-partnerships’ towards ‘commercialization-partnerships’. As the greening of the electricity industry advances, there is a gradual retreat of public actors and an increase in new green private-private-partnerships. Through these analyses, the paper fits into the conference theme regarding the dynamics for public-private partnerships. In the same time it is relevant for the theme regarding the implementation of public policies and technologies to promote sustainable development. Understanding the metamorphosis of partnerships supports policy-makers to design policies facilitating wider engagement in PPPs, a more secure operation environment and a faster transition towards new green private-private partnerships in industrial activities. The paper draws in postdoctoral research and is aimed for oral presentation in the workshop “Dynamics of public-private partnerships in implementing sustainability policies”

Multilevel governance patterns and the protection of groundwater and drinking water in Florida and the Netherlands

This paper develops a model of ‘governance’ as an aid for comparing such\ud governance structures and applies these to a particular policy arena: policies\ud on the protection of groundwater and on drinking water quality in the\ud Netherlands and Florida.\ud The research questions examined by this paper are:\ud 1. Which elements make up a governance structure?\ud 2. In what ways do these elements influence each other?\ud 3. What are the differences between the multilevel structure of protection for\ud aquifers in Florida and the Netherlands, and how do these differences\ud relate to other differences in the governance structure?\ud The analysis in this paper has shown that ‘governance’ involves more\ud elements than policy objectives and the means to implement policy. These\ud elements are not simply the sum of individual aspects but are closely\ud interlinked. We have tried to illustrate how these interrelations work. The case\ud study we used for this was the comparison between the Netherlands and\ud Florida regarding the protection of the quality of groundwater and drinking\ud water. The high degree of similarity between both states highlights the\ud differences, which exist as well. The interrelations between these differences\ud can be understood by using our hypotheses of the mechanisms by which they\ud work

Interdependent policy instrument preferences: a two-mode network approach

In policymaking, actors are likely to take the preferences of others into account when strategically positioning themselves. However, there is a lack of research that conceives of policy preferences as an interdependent system. In order to analyse interdependencies, we link actors to their policy preferences in water protection, which results in an actor-instrument network. As actors exhibit multiple preferences, a complex two-mode network between actors and policies emerges. We analyse whether actors exhibit interdependent preference profiles given shared policy objectives or social interactions among them. By fitting an exponential random graph model to the actor-instrument network, we find considerable clustering, meaning that actors tend to exhibit preferences for multiple policy instruments in common. Actors tend to exhibit interdependent policy preferences when they are interconnected, that is, they collaborate with each other. By contrast, actors are less likely to share policy preferences when a conflict line divides them

Energy Conservation in Existing Housing Sites; a Comparative Case Analysis\ud in the Netherlands

The housing sector in the Netherlands is responsible for a significant fraction of primary energy use and CO2 emissions. Great energy conservation opportunities are to be found in the existing housing stock, especially in large renovation projects on existing sites. Energy conservation savings of up to 90% are technically feasible. Despite this, there is little empirical evidence available about processes that influence the achievement of energy conservation goals in such locations. Moreover, no systematic, bottom-up research on the matter is available. This paper attempts to answer questions about the factors – size, direction and significance – that explain variation in the degree of energy conservation. Four main propositions were tested, comprising the following variables: actor characteristics, policy instruments, interorganizational collaboration and context. The study used a comparative research design. Data were collected from eleven existing housing sites where renovation projects had been executed, involving 70 personal interviews, a survey, and the collection of project documents. A mixed methods approach was applied for data analysis. The results show that interorganizational, collaborative efforts, policy instruments and the presence of wealthy housing associations have a positive influence on energy conservation outcomes. The mean energy conservation was slightly less than 40%, and outcomes varied between 26.5% and 69.8%. Strikingly, planning does not have a beneficial influence and the actual outcome is lower than predicted. The results are useful for national and local government policy makers, as they clearly argue that ambitious policy goals should be tempered