Energy policy: what it forgot and what it might yet recognise

Panel: Panel 1: Policy (incentives, normative measures, policy mixes to achive CO_2 reduction)

Authors:
Elizabeth Shove, Centre for Science Studies, University of Lancaster
Harlod Wilhite, University of Oslo and Ressurskonsult

Abstract

The rationale for national energy policy varies from country to country and changes over time. Initially designed to manage supply or limit dependence on oil, contemporary energy policies often have explicitly environmental goals as well. Despite these shifts of orientation, the character and scope of energy policy making remains remarkably constant. Manipulation of prices, regulation of supply, accelerating the diffusion of energy efficient equipment and providing information: these remain the staple ingredients of policy analysis and practice. We argue that this kind of energy policy fails to capture wide ranging changes in the way that energy is used. By focusing on some of the things which energy policy forgets, we aim to create space for a broader debate about how energy related practices evolve and about how those might be steered.

Taking the escalating use of air conditioning as an example, we review missing features of current policy strategies. We reflect, first, on how policy focuses on individual consumers and their choices rather than on longer term changes in consumer expectation and demand. We argue that further blind spots are created by a second tendency to detach analysis of energy use from an understanding of the services it makes possible.

We speculate on the qualities of alternative policy strategies which genuinely engage with the provision of “services” like comfort, cleanliness and convenience and ask whether aspects of energy service consumption lie beyond the reach of policy as currently understood. Finally, we discuss the wider implications of taking a broader view of societal efforts to respond to the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions.