Climate and Energy: EU Renewable Energy in Comparison

Abstract

Policies that aim at supporting renewable energy deployment is at the core of the ongoing revision of EU polices. Yet new EU state aid guidelines, as well as different national developments challenge existing subsidy policies for renewable energy. Theoretical accounts addressing policies that contribute to an energy transition away from fossil fuels highlight, inter alia, international policy coordination (Jacobs 2016), draw on European integration approaches (Dupont 2016) or frameworks incorporating organisational and political fields (Boasson 2015). While the mentioned literature offers interesting accounts of the relationship between the EU and national policies, there is still a need for comparative analyses across countries to understand to what extent and how EU policies and regulations shape national renewables policy portfolios. This panel includes papers which explore how EU policy formulation and decision-making affect domestic policies in different or similar ways across countries. The aim is to understand the development of renewable policy-making over time.