Policy packaging or policy patching? The development of complex energy efficiency policy mixes

By F. Kern, Paula Kivimaa, Mari Martiskainen. 2017

282 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ambition of energy policy has long been to reduce carbon emissions, secure energy supply and provide affordable energy services. In recent years an increasing number of policy instruments has been introduced to promote energy efficiency across the EU. While previous research has analysed the effectiveness of individual policy instruments and their impact on the diffusion of particular energy efficient technologies or practices, our analysis takes a broader view and examines the mix of existing policies aimed at stimulating reductions in energy use. The empirical focus of the paper is on policy goals and instruments aimed at stimulating energy efficiency in buildings in Finland and the United Kingdom. We trace the development of the policy mixes during 2000- 2014 and analyse their emerging overall characteristics. The analysis is based on a mapping of policy goals and instruments, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. We find that both countries have increasingly complex policy mixes, encompassing a variety of goals and instruments and make use of a range of different instrument types to encourage users to reduce energy consumption. Despite the shared EU influence, the way in which the policy mixes have evolved in both countries were found to be quite different.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/df279d893ab503353b97e88e9a983fdd09a06f69

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Building and Construction

1. Karoline S. Rogge
2. Michael Howlett
3. F. Kern

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. Karoline S. Rogge
2. F. Kern
3. Michael Howlett
4. D. Edmondson

Citations in the corpus

• The need for comprehensive and well targeted instrument mixes to stimulate energy transitions: The case of energy efficiency policy (2017, unknown): “This also confirms similar findings of a recent detailed analysis of building related energy efficiency policies in Finland and the UK [13].”
• The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems: Towards a conceptual framework of policy mix feedback in sustainability transitions (2019, background): “Regarding the latter, policies to support sustainability transitions are commonly added to the mix alongside existing policies (often supporting the regime) rather than replacing them (Kern and Howlett 2009; Kern et al. 2017).”
• Harnessing theories of the policy process for analysing the politics of sustainability transitions: A critical survey (2017, background): “This is at odds with the emergence of rich policy mix thinking among academics (Kern et al. 2017; Quitzow, 2015; Rogge and Reichardt, 2016) and policymakers interested in sustainability transitions (OECD, 2015).”
• Conceptual and empirical advances in analysing policy mixes for energy transitions (2017, background): “goals, and the congruence between instruments and goals, often in the context of multiple governments and governmental actions over time [30,42].”