Dysfunction between policy and industry

Författare

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.

Avdelning/ar