Dysfunction between policy and industry
Author
Summary, in English
There are many market and organisational barriers to the breakthrough of a new industrial field such as bioenergy. For many observers, recent high prices of oil and the significant policy support measures throughout Europe, would appear to have created economic conditions that should be sufficient for the industry to prosper. However, a significant number of policies supposed to expand bioenergy (thus also underwrite industry investment in bioenergy) are perceived as uncertain, and there have been negative market experiences. In addition, inexperienced industry and/or finance sector actors have sometimes invested unwisely within the economic/policy regimes. Their negative experiences apparently leading to both damaged industry reputation and heightened risk-related barriers to investment. As such, both policy-makers and bioenergy actors may be contributing to negative feedback loops. This paper investigates interactions and dysfunction between national policy interventions and industrial bioenergy strategies in Europe using examples from Sweden, Germany, the UK and Poland. The analysis applies an environmental policy evaluation framework and There are many market and organisational barriers to the breakthrough of a new industrial field such as bioenergy. For many observers, recent high prices of oil and the significant policy support measures throughout Europe, would appear to have created economic conditions that should be sufficient for the industry to prosper. However, a significant number of policies supposed to expand bioenergy (thus also underwrite industry investment in bioenergy) are perceived as uncertain, and there have been negative market experiences. In addition, inexperienced industry and/or finance sector actors have sometimes invested unwisely within the economic/policy regimes. Their negative experiences apparently leading to both damaged industry reputation and heightened risk-related barriers to investment. As such, both policy-makers and bioenergy actors may be contributing to negative feedback loops. This paper investigates interactions and dysfunction between national policy interventions and industrial bioenergy strategies in Europe using examples from Sweden, Germany, the UK and Poland. The analysis applies an environmental policy evaluation framework and insights from institutional theory to examine where, how and why problems arose in each case. The discussion then delineates pathways for resolution and/or avoidance of similar problems in the future. The framework tested here is still under development.
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Document type
Conference paper
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- market implementation
- bioenergy strategy
- socio-economic aspects
- bioenergy regulations
- bioenergy policy
Conference name
European Biomass Conference and Exhibition: From research to industry and markets
Conference date
2008-06-02
Conference place
Valencia, Spain
Status
Published