Multi-level policy entrepreneurship - German and Norwegian perspectives

What is the heritage of the European Union’s 2020 policy for expanding the share of renewables in the energy mix? This workshop deals with the potential for policy-entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to seize or engineer new opportunities based on this legacy. The EU is currently discussing policies and instruments for 2030, including for renewable energy. The EU’s renewables target for 2030 (27%) will not be broken down into national targets, in contrast to the framework for 2020. The EU Commission is currently working on a governance structure for ensuring that the renewables target is achieved, including reporting requirements. This workshop will focus on the impact of the EU’s 2020 renewables policy, discussing whether and how national support schemes created the seeds for further change beyond attaining the 2020 renewables target. Once in place, policies can create legacies, facilitating changes beyond the intended objective.

This workshop addresses the key question of how policy entrepreneurs and stakeholders responded to the support schemes established in Germany and Norway. While Germany has emphasized a technology-specific feed-in-tariffs, Norway entered into a joint scheme with Sweden to set up a joint technology-neutral market of green certificates. We zoom in on the role of policy entrepreneurs and stakeholders in processes of policy-feedback triggered by the establishment of support schemes for renewable energy and the domestic renewables targets for 2020. Have policy-entrepreneurs and stakeholders identified new opportunities and revised their strategies, and if so, has this response remained local/national or multi-level European tactics been employed? Finally, energy is likely to remain centre-piece of German-Norwegian relations, but how will future cooperation be affected?

Bringing together selected German and Norwegian practitioners and scientists, we will discuss the dynamics of climate and energy politics in Germany and Norway. The workshop is supported and funded by the Willy-Brandt-Stiftung and the Helmholtz-Alliance ENERGY TRANS, and will be held in English.

It will take place on March 3, at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin.

Here you can find the final programme for the event.

To register, please contact Barbara Burkel: burkel@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Please note that the number of participants is limited and places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.