TY  - JOUR
A1  - Avrami, Lydia
A1  - Sprinz, Detlef F.
T1  - Measuring and explaining the EU’s effect on national climate performance
JF  - Environmental Politics
N2  - To what extent has the European Union (EU) had a benign or retarding effect on what its member states would have undertaken in the absence of EU climate policies during 2008–2012? A measurement tool for the EU policy’s effect is developed and shows a benign average EU effect with considerable variation across countries. The EU’s policy effectiveness vis-à-vis its member states is explained by the EU’s non-compliance mechanism, the degree of usage of the Kyoto flexible mechanisms, and national pre-Kyoto emission reduction goals. Time-series cross-sectional analyses show that the EU’s non-compliance mechanism has no effect, while the ex-ante plans for using Kyoto flexible mechanisms and/or the ambitious pre-Kyoto emission reduction targets allow member states to escape constraints imposed by EU climate policy.
KW  - Climate change
KW  - policy effectiveness
KW  - EU
KW  - kyoto protocol
KW  - non-compliance
KW  - Kyoto (flexible) mechanisms
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2018.1494945
SN  - 0964-4016
SN  - 1743-8934
VL  - 28
IS  - 5
SP  - 822
EP  - 846
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ollier, Lana
A1  - Melliger, Marc André
A1  - Lilliestam, Johan
T1  - Friends or foes?
BT  - Political synergy or competition between renewable energy and energy efficiency policy
JF  - Energies : open-access journal of related scientific research, technology development and studies in policy and management
N2  - Energy efficiency measures and the deployment of renewable energy are commonly presented as two sides of the same coin-as necessary and synergistic measures to decarbonize energy systems and reach the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. Here, we quantitatively investigate the policies and performances of the EU Member States to see whether renewables and energy efficiency policies are politically synergistic or if they rather compete for political attention and resources. We find that Member States, especially the ones perceived as climate leaders, tend to prioritize renewables over energy efficiency in target setting. Further, almost every country performs well in either renewable energy or energy efficiency, but rarely performs well in both. We find no support for the assertion that the policies are synergistic, but some evidence that they compete. However, multi-linear regression models for performance show that performance, especially in energy efficiency, is also strongly associated with general economic growth cycles, and not only efficiency policy as such. We conclude that renewable energy and energy efficiency are not synergistic policies, and that there is some competition between them.
KW  - energy efficiency
KW  - renewable energy
KW  - climate policy
KW  - policy cycle
KW  - EU
KW  - policy competition
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/en13236339
SN  - 1996-1073
VL  - 13
IS  - 23
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -