Politics of Low Carbon Innovation: What Happened to the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan?

Most policy studies on energy and climate challenges focus on low carbon market ‘pull’ policies, such as carbon pricing, feed-in tariffs and regulation. Such policies aim at increasing demand for low carbon technologies in developed and developing countries. In contrast, studies of low carbon technology ‘push’ policies like R&D, innovation and demonstration projects have received less scholarly attention. In particular, studies of how market ‘push’ and ‘pull’ policies work together in solving challenges and providing new opportunities are short in supply. This paper takes stock of the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). EU technology ‘push’ policies have remained largely unexplored terrain in contrast to EU energy and climate ‘pull’ policies. The paper contributes by filling this knowledge gap. The plan was launched in 2008 as the low carbon technology pillar of EU climate and energy policies. How and why has the SET-Plan performed in promoting low carbon technologies in Europe? Based on an assessment of the implementation of the SET-Plan according to its goals, we explain performance based in theories of Multi-level Governance. Key variables include the technology interests and priorities of the key Member States and industry, the role of the EU institutions and climate and energy market ‘pull’ policies and the evolving international market for low carbon technologies. Data collection has been based on multiple sources, including a number of interviews.