Policy Objectives in Search of Policy Instruments: What can Administrative Architectures and Cultures Tell about Climate Policy Integration in Denmark and Germany?

In both Denmark and Germany environmental awareness is high, a green industry has established, a climate-specific administrative architecture developed, and an ideational shift towards a horizontal understanding of climate policy occurred. However, the policy integration of their climate and energy strategies, the Danish Energy Agreement (2012) and the German Energy Concept (2010), differs. While Denmark defined policy objectives as well as measures and their financial investments, Germany set up ambitious policy goals, but stopped short of deciding on how to implement them. Why could the Danish government develop a strategy ready for implementation, whereas the German Energy Concept leaves the choice of implementation steps to future policy formulation? By concentrating on the ministerial bureaucracy, this paper ‘brings the state apparatus back in’ the study of climate policy. It compares the Danish and German administrative architectures and cultures to understand open and inclusive versus closed and exclusive dynamics of policy formulation.