Integrated Transitions Toward Sustainability

Integrated transitions toward sustainability: the case of water and energy in Israel Na'ama Teschner Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Geography September, 2012 11 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own, except where work which has formed part of jointly-authored publications has been included. The contribution of the candidate and the other authors to this work has been explicitly indicated below. The candidate confirms that appropriate credit has been given within the thesis where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2012 The University of Leeds and Na'ama Teschner III Versions of chapters within this thesis have been published as a book chapter and papers in peer-reviewed journals. The work in the two papers was made solely by the first author, which has also written the papers. The co-authors have contributed guidance, supervision and editing. In the case of the book chapter, the first author has gathered information, analysed it and wrote the chapter. The second author has provided historical and statistical data for the publication, which readjusted for subsection 4.4 in the thesis. Chapter 4 is based on peer-reviewed work published as: Teschner, N. & Negev, M. (2012). Water infrastructures in Israel. In: Megdal, S.B., Varady R.G. & Eden S. (eds.) Shared Borders, Shared Waters, Leiden, CRC Press/Balkema Taylor & Francis Group in cooperation with UNESCO-IHE, Delft. Teschner, N., Garb, Y. & Paavola, Y. (forthcoming). The role of technology in policy dynamics. To appear in Environmental Policy and Governance. Chapter 6 is based on peer-reviewed work published as: Teschner, N., McDonald, A., Foxon, JT., Paavola, 1. (2011). Integrated transitions toward sustainability: the case of water and energy policies in Israel, Technological forecasting and social change 79(3): 457-468. IV Acknowledgements My first unlimited appreciation is dedicated to my supervisor Prof. Jouni Paavola, who has guided me through the endless theoretical maze PhD students often face. Jouni's careful attention to my questions and brilliant comments in every stage of this research, hold an important part of this thesis as it is. What is no less important, receiving his direct and honest feedback was crucial for me to believe in the process and make a continuous progress. I feel I have learnt a lot from him, both academically and at a personal level. I want to also greatly appreciate my supervisor, Prof. Adrian McDonlad, who has contributed his vast experience in water management and real-life policymaking. More than that, Adrian was willing to support my choices and trusted me to take my own way in conducting this research. For this I am very grateful. More recognition and appreciation must go to Dr. Tim Foxon, who served as an excellent reader and contributed highly insightful comments. I also want to thank the participants of this research that were willing to spend time and effort in answering my questions and sharing their knowledge and thoughts. Special additional thanks go to Dr. Yaakov Garb, which, first, thought me what analytical thinking is, and second, spent time in discussing ideas and thoughts about water management in Israel, technology and sustainability and to Prof. Alon Tal, without him I probably would not have found myself in this great adventure in the UK (and adventures still to come!). Finally, I want to thank people in the department and outside of it for their intellectual support and friendship, especially to Paula and Maya. A big gratitude goes to my dear parents who have always given their encouragement, and their love, without which nothing could have been accomplished. v Abstract Water and energy sectors encompass large infrastructural systems, face increased scarcities and have becn argued to have locked-in structures. Questions of how technological breakthroughs occur and how the underlying policies and institutional structures change are therefore important for responding to socio economic pressures and to improve environmental sustainability. This thesis aims to re-theorise the interplay of technology, policies and discourses within sociotechnical regimes and to examine the merits of these relations from an inter sectoral perspective. This dissertation combines insights from the literature on science and technology studies, policy dynamics and policy integration and uses the integrated approach to examine parallel and interrelated dynamics in the Israeli water and energy regimes, making usc of the interpretative policy analysis methodology and a range of qualitative methods. The dissertation makes three analytical contributions. Firstly, the dissertation highlights how the power of technology in shaping and transforming policy regimes has been underestimated in the current literature about policy dynamics. The dissertation exemplifies this by the case of desalination technology, which had the capacity to transform the Israeli water sector. I suggest that technological breakthroughs that rendered seawater desalination economically feasible, undermined long-lasting hydro-ideological support for agriculture, introduced new ideas about water abundance, and engendered changes in paradigms, institutional structures and constellation of actors. Desalination technology contributed to this shift by destabilizing the existing structure through re-framing and dis-placing important issues, such as environmental externalities, economic costs and hard political choices, to other policy sectors and levels of governance as well as reallocated them between politicians, bureaucrats and water professionals. Secondly, the dissertation argues that the focus of the sociotechnical transitions literature has been on structural changes with predefined objectives and suggests that a more fluid and agency-based ideas about discourses - as presented by discursive institutionalism - can provide contrast and complement. The dissertation exemplifies the usefulness of this cross-fertilisation by analysing the VI rise of four technological altematives to current Israel's coal-based energy regime. I suggest that the regime is shi fting away fi'om the traditional scarcity discourse towards a new discourse on energy abundance. The ncw energy abundance discourse was creatcd by policy networks, who promote natural gas, oil shale, nuclear energy and solar energy as energy altematives although their mainstreaming still faces tonnidable uncertainties and various constraints. The findings also support the premise that a change from constructed scarcity of energy resources to their abundancc potentially reconstructs socio-technical transitions, future pathways or technological trajectories and institutional arrangements at large. Thirdly, the dissertation examines how sectoral transitions may be coupled and technological regimes may co-evolve. The dissertation demonstrates that while transition management literature examines how long-teon structural changes could be directed toward greater sustainability, it has, however, mostly taken a sectoral approach which ncglects the potential interdependencies between sociotechnical changes and policy dynamics in different sectors. The thesis examincs the water-energy nexus in Israel and suggests that transitions of the water and energy sectors in Israel are physically, spatially and financially coupled. Yet, inter-scctoral institutional structures, management apparatus and niche induced innovations were found to be lacking integrative capacities, driven by an inherent strategy of supply-side management and around the unaltered, implicit, core belief in the need to secure independent and ultimately unlimited sources of water and energy. In practice, integrated transitions management could therefore playa crucial role in re-orienting trajectories in the water and energy sectors, re-designing transition arenas and articulating transition pathways. This could cncourage technology mediated policy realignments on the basis of more comprchensive and longer tcon problem solving rather than on the opportunities technologies offer for problem avoidance or postponement. Further policy recommendations highlight the merits and pitfalls of greater cohesion in the policy arena, including the effectiveness of procedural tools such as the regulatory impact assessment. VII Table of Content Abstract v Table of Figures ix List of Tables x List of Pictures x Acronyms and Abbreviations xi 1. INTRODUCTION: THE KEY DIMENSIONS OF THE PROBLEM 1 1.1 . Introduction 1.2. Integrated transitions toward sustainability: conceptual novelty 1.3. Constructions of scarcity and abundance 1.4. The water-energy interface 1.5. The water-energy nexus in Israel: empirical justification for research 1.6. Aims and questions 1.7. Outline of chapters 2. A REVIEW OF CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO POLICY DYNAMICS 26 2.1. Introduction: conceptualising environmental policy dynamics 2.2. Competing approaches to policy dynamics 2.3. Conclusions: moving policy dynamics theory forward 3. METHODOLOGY, MATERIALS & METHODS 59 3.1. Introduction 3.2. What is policy 3.3. Competing methodological approaches to policy analysis 3.4. The interpretive policy analysis framework 3.5. Research design 3.6. Case-study approach 3.7. Time frame 3.8. Materials and data validation 3.9. Data analysis 3.10. Reflection

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