Water policy has represented for decades one of the main spheres of the European Environmental Policy Analysis. The elaboration and national transposition of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents one of the milestones of its development, touching irreversibly with its complexity and innovative spirit multiple actors, interests and sectors (e.g. energy). This new instrument calls for a reconciliation of the different concerns and interest and an integration of the various policy goals in order to overcome the sectoral and spatial barriers.
In order to assess the “integration” of the various goals and its impact on policy outputs and outcomes, this paper focuses on the WFD implementation consequences on the Norwegian hydropower. Hydropower is a well-established renewable technology which has played an important role in the Norwegian electricity generation and economic development. Nevertheless, its environmental sustainability is often questioned at the European and international level, especially in the light of the caused hydromorphological alterations, water quality degradation and biodiversity loss, all pressures on top of EU environmental agenda. Hence, the hydropower sector is at a crossroad between representing a renewable electricity source and a measure for global climate change mitigation, as well as, a local environmental challenge.
Drawing on documentary analysis and interviews conducted in Norway, the aim of this paper is to explore how the water and energy policy concerns are being reconciled in relation to the hydropower activity. This signifies to provide insights on the process of implementation of the WFD, on the contending positions advocated by the different stakeholders, on how state to non-state actors are negotiating, the institutional and organizational changes and on what type of compromises have been made so far. More broadly, we aim to understand weather the collaborative governance has been established on the ground or remains a laudable principle.
