Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Part I Introduction and overview
- Part II The evolving governance context: the European Union
- Part III Climate policy in the European Union: understanding the past
- 4 Burden sharing: distributing burdens orsharing efforts?
- 5 Renewable energies: a continuing balancing act?
- 6 Emissions trading: the enthusiastic adoption of an ‘alien’ instrument?
- 7 Adapting to a changing climate: an emerging European Union policy?
- 8 Adaptation in the water sector: will mainstreaming be sufficient?
- 9 The evolution of climate change policy in the European Union: a synthesis
- Part IV Climate policy in the European Union: future challenges
- Part V Climate policy in the European Union: retrospect and prospect
- Index
- References
5 - Renewable energies: a continuing balancing act?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Part I Introduction and overview
- Part II The evolving governance context: the European Union
- Part III Climate policy in the European Union: understanding the past
- 4 Burden sharing: distributing burdens orsharing efforts?
- 5 Renewable energies: a continuing balancing act?
- 6 Emissions trading: the enthusiastic adoption of an ‘alien’ instrument?
- 7 Adapting to a changing climate: an emerging European Union policy?
- 8 Adaptation in the water sector: will mainstreaming be sufficient?
- 9 The evolution of climate change policy in the European Union: a synthesis
- Part IV Climate policy in the European Union: future challenges
- Part V Climate policy in the European Union: retrospect and prospect
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The promotion of renewable energy sources (RES) has been on the systemic agenda in some European countries since the 1950s. In the 1990s, it moved on to the institutional agenda in many more countries, attracted by the expected potential to mitigate climate change, improve energy security, and provide new opportunities for industrial development and job creation. But at EU level, the path towards greater policy coordination has been a long and winding one. Despite the wave of enthusiasm for a stronger EU role in energy policy noted in Chapter 3, only the responsibility for market liberalisation – and for some science, technology and innovation aspects – currently resides at the EU level. This has made the deployment of RES primarily a matter of national energy policy. So, although there are widely thought to be strong and ‘compelling reasons for setting up an enabling framework to promote renewables’ in the EU (COM (2006) 848: 3), disagreements over its specific design look set to persist, not least because it could limit the freedom to pursue energy policy goals, a right currently enjoyed by the Member States.
The struggle to balance multiple objectives has frustrated the development of an EU-level RES policy since the 1970s. With hindsight, it is clear that policy has been driven by two main objectives, which in turn have flowed from rather different problem framings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Climate Change Policy in the European UnionConfronting the Dilemmas of Mitigation and Adaptation?, pp. 103 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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