Climate Policy Integration into EU Energy Policy

Progress and prospects

Claire Dupont

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317615828
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Climate change is a cross-cutting, long-term, global problem that presents policymakers with many challenges in their efforts to respond to the issue. Integrating climate policy objectives into the elaboration and agreement of policy measures in other sectors represents one promising method for ensuring coherent policies that respond adequately to the climate change challenge.

This book explores the integration of long-term climate policy objectives into EU energy policy. It engages in-depth empirical analysis on the integration of climate policy objectives into renewable energy policy; energy performance of buildings; and policies in support of natural gas importing infrastructure. The book describes insufficient levels of climate policy integration across these areas to achieve the long-term policy goals. A conceptual framework to find reasons for insufficient integration levels is developed and applied.

This book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, academics and policymakers interested in environmental, climate change and energy policy development in the EU, particularly from the perspective of long-term policy challenges. The book adds to scholarly literature on policy integration and EU integration, and contributes to new and developing research about EU decarbonisation.

1
Introduction

Climate change is often considered a ‘wicked’ problem (Jordan, Huitema, van Asselt, Rayner and Berkhout, 2010: 4–5). It is a cross-cutting, long-term, global problem that presents policymakers with many challenges in their efforts to respond to the issue. The European Union (EU) has developed a leadership stance on the climate issue over time, and aims to advance global agreement through diplomacy and credible leadership by example (Wurzel and Connelly, 2011b). Ensuring that its domestic policies are sufficiently ambitious to demonstrate to the global community the potential and importance of advancing policies to combat climate change is one of the EU’s leadership strategies (Oberthür and Roche Kelly, 2008).

Climate change is more than an environmental issue. With the effects of climate change expected to increase pressure on our food and energy systems, combating climate change (and adapting to its impacts) is a matter of survival. The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted that it is unequivocal that climate change is caused by human activity – and most importantly by the burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and gas), which emits dangerous greenhouse gases (GHGs). Over time, these GHGs accumulate in the earth’s atmosphere, so that less heat escapes into space and global temperatures increase (the ‘greenhouse effect’) (IPCC, 2007, 2013). But responding to climate change is a challenge for policymakers. It is a global crisis that cuts across frontiers, affects developed and developing countries, and requires action and policy measures across a wide variety of policy fields. Policy sectors that affect climate change, or that will be affected by climate change, include agriculture, biodiversity, energy, fisheries, health, industry, migration, transport, waste management, water, among others. Effectively combating climate change means ensuring that climate change is ‘integrated’ or ‘mainstreamed’ into the policy process and policy output of each of these policy sectors. As a ‘wicked problem’, climate change belongs to a set of problems that ‘challenge established social values and institutional frameworks, defy analysis, and have no obvious solutions’ (Jordan et al., 2010: 4–5). While such a framing may seem defeatist, it is certainly true that, despite growing scientific evidence, humanity has nonetheless continued its fossil fuel-consuming development path that upsets the precarious balance in the climate system (IEA, 2011, 2013).

Despite these challenges, the EU has developed several policy measures over the years in its effort to exert international leadership in the fight against climate change. Since the early 1990s, the EU has expressed a desire to lead the international community in solving this issue and it has increasingly added credibility to its rhetoric by agreeing internal policy measures to reduce its own emissions of GHGs (Gupta and Grubb, 2000; Oberthür and Roche Kelly, 2008; Wurzel and Connelly, 2011b). EU citizens generally view climate change as an important issue, and actions to combat climate change in the EU have received popular support (Eurobarometer, 2008, 2011, 2014). These realities mean that climate change has enjoyed a higher status than many other environmental issues in the EU. Given the complex reality of the climate issue, however, it is clear that environmental policies alone are insufficient to address the problem. With many other sectors causing climate change, responses need to be developed in these sectors in particular. Climate policy integration (CPI), then, represents one possible policy strategy that can be deployed to respond to the challenge of making policy to combat climate change.

But what is meant by climate policy integration? In some respects, climate policy integration is an example of environmental policy integration (EPI). Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states: ‘Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Union’s policies and activities, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development’, providing a legal obligation on the EU to EPI, but what precisely EPI is in practice has also long been discussed. Whether EPI is considered a policy or legal principle (Nollkamper, 2002), an objective for improving the efficiency of the policy process or a requirement for policies to improve the state of the environment (Persson, 2004), policymakers and scholars have not managed to agree. At the very minimum, ‘integration’ implies that one policy’s objectives become part of another policy’s development (Briassoulis, 2005).

The focus of this book is on the EU’s internal energy policies and on whether they sufficiently integrate climate policy objectives. I describe and analyse the level of CPI in EU energy policy between 2000 and 2010, with the aim of explaining why varying levels of CPI within the EU’s energy policy exist. This research falls firmly within, and adds to, academic literature on environmental and climate policy integration (Adelle and Russel, 2013; Jordan and Lenschow, 2010; Lafferty and Hovden, 2003; Lenschow, 2002; Nilsson and Eckerberg, 2007). The book presents the results of an in-depth case study analysis of EU energy policies, and a testing ground for operationalising and explaining CPI. The results provide valuable reflection, not only for academic research on EPI and CPI, but also for policymakers engaged in the climate and energy policy sectors.

In this introduction, I first describe the research puzzle and main research question guiding the book. Next I present the research set-up and design. I then describe the EU’s policymaking processes and some of the key moments in the historical development of climate and energy policy in the EU. Finally, I present the overall structure of the book.

Research puzzle and design

With the adoption of the 2009 ‘integrated’ package of policy measures on climate and energy, it seemed not only that the EU had finally followed through on its promises of climate leadership, but that it had also practised EPI (Adelle, Pallemaerts and Chiavari, 2009; Adelle, Russel and Pallemaerts, 2012). Nevertheless, this development also raised several questions that form the central motivations for the research described in this book:

• Just how ‘integrated’ are climate policies into EU energy policies anyway?
• Has the level of CPI in EU energy policy changed over time?
• Is CPI uniform across energy policies?
• How could potential variances in the levels of CPI be explained?

As a result of reflections on these questions, the main research question guiding the book can be formulated as follows:

What is the extent of climate policy integration into the EU’s energy policy, and why?

Thus, ‘the extent of climate policy integration’ is the dependent variable under investigation within the broad case of ‘EU energy policy’. Independent variables are sought to explain the dependent variable (see Chapter 2).

The focus on energy policy is justified due to the energy sector being the biggest contributor of GHG emissions in the EU. Whether it is through the production, transmission or consumption of energy, GHG emissions from energy overall are estimated to be at the source of about 80 per cent of total GHG emissions in the EU (EEA, 2010: 31). Mitigating (or combating) climate change requires the reduction of GHG emissions as soon as possible, and by 2050 to a level 80 to 95 per cent lower than the level of GHG emissions in the EU in 1990. Any attempt to mitigate climate change, therefore, must consider policy action in the energy sector. This 80 to 95 per cent reduction in GHG emissions in the EU is a political commitment agreed by the European Council in October 2009 (European Council, 2009). It represents a translation of scientific estimates of the effort required to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, and to ensure that global temperature increase does not exceed two degrees Celsius (European Commission, 2007b). This 2050 target to reduce GHG emissions by 80 to 95 per cent in the EU is thus both a scientific target and a political commitment. The EU is already on its way to reducing its GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels. By 2013, the EU had reduced its emissions by about 19 per cent (EEA, 2014). This is already an achievement and a policy success, but the remaining effort required for 2050 is considerable. It would not be possible to meet the 2050 objective without adopting policy measures in the energy sector that ensure the reduction of GHG emissions.

In 2011, the Commission released its ‘Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050’ (European Commission, 2011b), which recognised that the greatest reductions in GHG emissions will need to occur in sectors that produce and consume energy. Certain sectors of the economy will face greater obstacles in reducing their GHG emissions (agriculture, for example). This communication was followed by a detailed roadmap for the energy sector (European Commission, 2011a), which outlines a number of scenarios for the energy sector’s contribution to the EU’s effort to reduce GHG emissions. This effort amounts to at least an 85 per cent reduction in GHG emissions from the energy sector (ibid.: 2). It is thus clear that aspirations exist within the EU to ensure that climate policy objectives are well integrated into EU energy policy (as also demonstrated by the above-mentioned 2009 climate and energy package of policy measures). The energy sector is a crucial sector for combating climate change. Is CPI in the energy sector sufficient to meet the long-term climate policy objectives? The energy sector should provide rich empirical data for understanding and explaining levels of CPI.

The research presented here is of primarily a qualitative nature, although certain parts contain some quantitative elements (for example, in terms of analysing statistics on GHG emissions, energy consumption and production or renewable energy generation). The main research strategy deployed involves analysing a limited number of case studies of EU energy policy to establish the levels of CPI in their policy processes and outputs (George and Bennett, 2004; Gerring, 2007; King, Keohane and Verba, 1994; Swanborn, 2010; Yin, 2009). Analysis in the case studies follows a process tracing strategy (Bennett, 2008; Checkel, 2008), including several data-collection and analysis techniques: document analysis, literature review, and complementary semi-structured interviews (Hopf, 2004; Kvale and Brinkman, 2009; Rathbun, 2008).

To answer the research question, I selected a number of cases of EU energy policy to examine in some detail. The entire EU energy portfolio is too large for a qualitative case study, so the case selection process followed a number of steps and criteria. The universe of cases from which I chose included all EU energy policies. After an initial survey of this universe of cases, I found that they could be categorised into three main types (linked to the categories of EU competence on energy policy in Article 194.1, TFEU):

1. EU internal policies on the production and transmission of energy;
2. EU internal policies on the consumption of energy;
3. EU external policies on ensuring continued supplies of energy to the EU.

The first category of energy policies includes policy measures on, for example, renewable energy generation, the internal market for energy, and on coal and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. The second category of energy policies includes, for example, policy measures to reduce energy consumption by improving the energy-use of products, energy labelling and the energy performance of buildings, among others. Finally, the third category of policies is related to external relations. This category deals specifically with ensuring the security of energy supplies, for which only limited competence exists at the EU level. Bilateral negotiations for supplies of energy are often in the hands of member states, but the EU itself is also involved in energy dialogues with key energy partners, such as Russia (Hadfield, 2008; interview 9). Other policy measures at EU level in this third category include, for example, policies on stocks of natural gas and oil, policies in response to energy supply emergencies and policies on infrastructure measures for imports of energy sources.

I selected three cases for analysis based on expected variation on the variables of interest (Gerring, 2007, 2008: 668; Yin, 2009). Thus, the case studies chosen vary in terms of the dependent variable (the level of CPI). Some variation on the independent variables (namely, functional interrelations; political commitment; institutional and policy context; and the process dimension; see Chapter 2) is thus also expected, where the variation of the independent variables explains the variation on the dependent variable (King et al., 1994: 91–93).

Nevertheless, the case studies are bounded within a specific universe (Klotz, 2008; Rohlfing, 2012: 24–28). First, the cases chosen are geographically bounded, in that I focus on EU energy policies that have effect internally to the EU. Second, the cases are institutionally bounded, in that the cases chosen were all agreed under the ordinary legislative procedure (previously the co-decision procedure) of the EU (with the Commission proposing legislation and the Parliament and Council co-deciding, see below). Third, the case studies are substantively bounded as they are all drawn from the energy policy domain. Fourth, the cases are temporally bounded, with policy developments occurring between 2000 and 2010. To see potential developments over time, I chose cases that had measures adopted in t...