Decarbonizing heating through EU policymaking: Processes of cross-sectoral policy coordination and integration

Decarbonizing heating in the European Union (EU), and more widely, will likely require a nexus approach to policymaking, involving climate mitigation, energy, geopolitics, and social policy. It is, therefore, important to understand how the issue can be governed in a cross-sectoral manner. Policy integration is a concept that is highlighting the policy aspect of nexus governance, through shedding light on policies that combine objectives, instruments, and implementation across policy sectors. While most work has focused on integration of outcomes, the processes preceding these are less well understood, as empirical accounts are scarce. We therefore present a case study of integrated policymaking for heating decarbonization in the EU, based on analysis of policy documents news articles and interviews with policymakers, researchers, journalists, and interest groups. We perform a qualitative content analysis to trace the policymaking process and scrutinize recent policy change in the context of the Fit for 55 legislative package that marks an intensification of policy integration. We further discern factors and dynamics that are facilitating integrated policymaking. We find that the current recast of the Energy Performance for Buildings Directive (EPBD) integrates climate mitigation and heating in an unprecedented way, following a trustful collaboration between Directorate Generals with interactions over 5 years, although negative coordination is still prevailing. Aspects of social acceptance and social justice are important to consider when integrating heating and climate. The coordinative role of Secretariate-General further enabled policy integration in domains where climate policy has not existed before, such as EU taxonomy. The findings suggest that integrated policy-making in the EU energy transition is likely to be a slow process that will require support from the top. We conclude with implications for research on the energy transition as well as policy integration.