Comparative Renewables Policy Challenging one-eyed technology-focused accounts of renewables policy, this book provides a ground-breaking, deep-diving and genre-crossing longitudinal study of policy development. The book develops a multi-field explanatory approach, capturing interrelationships between actors often analyzed in isolation. It provides empirically rich and systematically conducted comparative case studies on the political dynamics of the ongoing energy transition in six European countries. While France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom opted for ‘technology-specific’ renewables support mixes, Norway and Sweden embarked on ‘technology-neutral’ support mixes. Differences between the two groups result from variations in domestic political and organizational fields, but developments over time in the European environment also spurred variation. These findings challenge more simplistic and static accounts of Europeanization. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of energy transitions, comparative climate politics, policy theory, Europeanization, European integration and comparative European politics more broadly, as well as practitioners with an interest in renewable energy and climate transitions. Elin Lerum Boasson is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Oslo. She is also Senior Researcher at CICERO – Centre for International Climate Research, Oslo, Norway. Merethe Dotterud Leiren is Senior Researcher and Political Scientist at CICERO – Centre for International Climate Research, Oslo, Norway. Jørgen Wettestad is Research Professor at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Oslo, Norway. Routledge Studies on the Governance of Sustainability in Europe Series editors: Thomas Hoerber ESSCA School of Management, France Jenny Fairbrass University of East Anglia, UK At the beginning of the twenty-first century the EU is faced with major economic, environmental and societal challenges. Climate change is at the forefront of these challenges having a wide-ranging impact on the economy and society. This series will examine tensions and ambiguities in European sustainable development from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary background, covering the impact of sustainable development policies on European integration, and sustainability issues in energy, environmental, transport, development and agricultural policies. Comparative Renewables Policy Political, Organizational and European Fields Edited by Elin Lerum Boasson, Merethe Dotterud Leiren and Jørgen Wettestad Comparative Renewables Policy Political, Organizational and European Fields Edited by Elin Lerum Boasson, Merethe Dotterud Leiren and Jørgen Wettestad First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Elin Lerum Boasson, Merethe Dotterud Leiren and Jørgen Wettestad; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Elin Lerum Boasson, Merethe Dotterud Leiren and Jørgen Wettestad to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-18766-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-19814-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of figures vii List of tables viii Notes on contributors ix Acronyms and abbreviations xi Foreword xiv Preface xv PART I Setting the stage 1 1 Introduction 3 ELIN LERUM BOASSON, MERETHE DOTTERUD LEIREN AND JØRGEN WETTESTAD 2 Comparing renewable support mixes 19 ELIN LERUM BOASSON AND MERETHE DOTTERUD LEIREN 3 A dynamic multi-field approach 32 ELIN LERUM BOASSON 4 Europeanization of renewables support 58 ELIN LERUM BOASSON PART II Case studies 73 5 Germany: from feed-in tariffs to greater competition 75 MERETHE DOTTERUD LEIREN AND INKEN REIMER vi Contents 6 The United Kingdom: from market-led policy towards technology steering 103 TIM RAYNER, MERETHE DOTTERUD LEIREN AND TOR HÅKON JACKSON INDERBERG 7 Poland: incumbent stability amid legislative volatility 126 KACPER SZULECKI 8 France: from renewables laggard to technology-specificity devotee 149 ELIN LERUM BOASSON, CATHERINE BANET AND JØRGEN WETTESTAD 9 Sweden: electricity certificate champion 170 ELIN LERUM BOASSON, HUGO FABER AND KARIN BÄCKSTRAND 10 Norway: certificate supporters turning opponents 193 ELIN LERUM BOASSON PART III Assessments and conclusions 217 11 Comparative assessments and conclusions 219 ELIN LERUM BOASSON, MERETHE DOTTERUD LEIREN AND JØRGEN WETTESTAD 12 Implications for climate research and policy studies 240 ELIN LERUM BOASSON Index 254 Figures 3.1 Multiple fields involved in European renewables support- scheme developments 50 Tables 2.1 Dimensions of technology-neutral and technology-specific support schemes 22 2.2 Comparing renewables support schemes in the six case-study countries (2016 as reference year) 25 3.1 Four modes of Europeanization 36 3.2 Four modes of the organizational field 41 3.3 Two cognitive scripts in the political field 46 3.4 Four modes of the political field 48 11.1 Comparing the role of the European environment across time and cases 220 11.2 Comparing the role of the organizational field across time and cases 224 11.3 Comparing the role of the political field across time and cases 230 12.1 Four temporal Europeanization processes 243 Notes on contributors Editors Elin Lerum Boasson, Associate Professor, is Deputy Head of the Political Sci- ence Department at the University of Oslo. Further, she is Senior Researcher at CICERO – Centre for International Climate Research, Oslo, and a lead author in the Sixth Assessment report cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- mate Change (IPCC), Working Group III: Mitigation. Boasson has published extensively on the EU and domestic climate and energy policy, exploring the role of policy entrepreneurship, cultural-institutional features, business influ- ence, political steering and policy diffusion. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, die Freie Universität Berlin and SCANCOR-Weatherhead, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Merethe Dotterud Leiren is Research Director and Political Scientist at CIC- ERO – Center for International Climate Research, Oslo. She has published on political opportunity structures, differential growth, European integration and dilemmas in multi-level governance systems, focusing on energy, climate and transport policies. She has been Research Fellow at the University of Agder, Norway; Guest Researcher at the Humboldt University Berlin; and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo. Further, she has been a member of the Norwegian Commission for Air Transport, appointed by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and a member of the evaluation committee of the Swedish Energy Agency’s Research Programme Human, Energy Systems and Society. Jørgen Wettestad is Research Professor at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Oslo, and a lead author in the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report, Working Group III: Mitigation. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on interna- tional, EU and national environmental policy, with particular attention to emis- sions trading. Wettestad has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria; the Institute for International Studies, Berkeley, CA; and SCANCOR-Weatherhead, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. He has also led and participated in several EU-funded and international projects, and has long experience as Programme Director at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. Wettestad is Editorial Board Member of the journals Climate Policy and Politics and Governance. x Notes on contributors Contributors Karin Bäckstrand is a professor in environmental social science at the Depart- ment of Political Science, Stockholm University, and a member of the Swedish Climate Policy Council. She has published widely on global climate poli- tics, the role of science in environmental decision-making and the democratic legitimacy of global governance. Catherine Banet is Associate Professor at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, Energy and Resources Law Department, the University of Oslo. She is the author of several publications in the fields of renewable energy, support schemes and alternative financing models, energy market design and CCS. Hugo Faber is a PhD student in political science at Södertörn University. He has worked as a research assistant on several research projects on climate and energy governance, and as an analyst at the Swedish Agency for Public Man- agement and in the Secretariat of the Swedish Climate Policy Council. Tor Håkon Jackson Inderberg is Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Oslo. He