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Roger Hildingsson, photo.

Roger Hildingsson

Researcher

Roger Hildingsson, photo.

The role of institutional innovations in the transition to low-carbon futures

Author

  • Jamil Khan
  • Roger Hildingsson
  • Annica Kronsell

Summary, in English

Deep cuts in carbon emissions to avoid dangerous climatic change will require fundamental transformations of the energy and transport systems. This is an enormous challenge for society and the political system. In order to tackle this challenge, we argue that it will be necessary to develop new institutions and institutional practices that address and give priority to long-term climate policy objectives. In this paper we focus on three institutional innovations in the field of climate governance and energy system transformations that are guided by such visions. Institutional reforms at the national level in three arguably progressive cases (the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden) are studied concerning their relevance for governing transitions towards low-carbon societies. The study asks: What views on how to bring about low-carbon transitions guide the activities of the institution? What is the role of new institutions in processes of change and what institutional practices have developed so far? The cases provide examples of ways to enhance reflexivity and how a new political agenda for low-carbon futures and strategies for instigating processes of change can be institutionalized. However, when contrasted against contemporary green political thought, they seem to be bound by liberal conceptions of greening the welfare state rather than post-liberal ecologist ideals on radical green transformations. Our analysis also shows that in practice, the institutions examined tend to favor technological transitions over behavioral change and to be reliant on hierarchical authority and traditional patterns of steering to a greater extent than intended.

Department/s

  • Environmental and Energy Systems Studies
  • Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies
  • Department of Political Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Document type

Conference paper

Topic

  • Energy Systems

Keywords

  • low carbon governance
  • transitions
  • institutions

Conference name

2nd UNITAR/Yale Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy

Conference date

2010-09-17

Conference place

Yale, United States

Status

Published