Local energy governance: communities and energy efficiency policy

Panel: 3. Local action and national examples

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Joanne Wade, Association for Decentralised Energy/ADE, United Kingdom
Nick Eyre, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Jo Hamilton, University of Oxford - Environmental Change Institute, United Kingdom
Yael Parag, School of Sustainability, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel

Abstract

The need for multi-level governance to successfully deliver a transition to a lower carbon society has been recognised at the EU level and it is clear that the required changes will involve a wide variety of stakeholders. However, there is as yet little agreement about what this actually means in practice. This paper considers one key element of the governance landscape for energy efficiency: local energy governance. It is concerned with the roles of local communities and local government, within the wider framework of regional and national energy governance.

The UK Government has recognised the contribution that community actors and local government can play in creating support for change and catalysing the necessary changes in energy actions (energy efficiency, behaviour change and energy generation from renewables). However, there is a gap in our understanding about the ways that community organisations and local government can best work together to promote a sustainable and viable transition, and how energy actions are governed and implemented at the local level.

The evolving roles of these two key actors, and the different local governance structures that are emerging in the UK, are examined in this paper, based on studies of the UK situation that included network analysis and in-depth interviews with community groups and local authorities. The impact that differing approaches may have on levels of community engagement is considered, together with the impact that intermediaries have on supporting action, accessing funding and sharing learning and good practice. The implications for energy efficiency policy formulation and implementation of the emerging governance structures, and of the resources needed to support local energy action, are explored.