Enough? The role of sufficiency in European energy and climate plans

Carina Zell-Ziegler,Johannes Thema,Benjamin Best,Frauke Wiese,Jonas Lage,Annika Schmidt,Edouard Toulouse,Sigrid Stagl

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112483

Abstract

Energy sufficiency is one of the three energy sustainability strategies, next to energy efficiency and renewable energies. We analyse to what extent European governments follow this strategy, by conducting a systematic document analysis of all available European National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and Long-Term Strategies (LTSs). We collect and categorise a total of 230 sufficiency-related policy measures, finding large differences between countries. We find most sufficiency policies in the transport sector, when classifying also modal shift policies to change the service quality of transport as sufficiency policies. Types of sufficiency policy instruments vary considerably from sector to sector, for instance the focus on financial incentives and fiscal instruments in the mobility sector, information in the building sector, and financial incentive/tax instruments in cross-sectoral application. Regulatory instruments currently play a minor role for sufficiency policy in the national energy and climate plans of EU member states. Similar to energy efficiency in recent decades, sufficiency still largely referred to as micro-level individual behaviour change or necessary exogenous trends that will need to take place. It is not treated yet as a genuine field of policy action to provide the necessary framework for enabling societal change.

Highlights

In the pursuit of achieving the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, the European Union has presented scenarios for decarbonisation by 2050 (EC, 2019a) and has committed itself to the binding target of a minimum 40 % greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2030 (EC and Council of the European Union, 2018), which the EU-Commission in tends to raise to 50–55 % in its draft Climate Law under the European Green Deal (EC, 2020d)
Based on the hypothesis that an EU pathway to 2050 net zero emissions relying predominantly on the technical options of efficiency and consistency would be difficult – if not impossible – and that energy sufficiency policies are necessary, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the current state of sufficiency measures in European climate and energy policies
In National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) we reviewed in particular summary tables of measures and the chapters on policies and measures focusing on the chapters on the dimensions decarbonisation and energy efficiency

Summary

Introduction

In the pursuit of achieving the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, the European Union has presented scenarios for decarbonisation by 2050 (EC, 2019a) and has committed itself to the binding target of a minimum 40 % greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2030 (EC and Council of the European Union, 2018), which the EU-Commission in tends to raise to 50–55 % in its draft Climate Law under the European Green Deal (EC, 2020d). An important policy mechanism in the context of the EU climate ambition is the commitment of EU member states to develop a vision for 2050 with national Long-Term Strategies (LTS) and a short-term implementation roadmap for 2030 with National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP). The basic motivation behind this process is to lay the foundations for a successful “clean energy transition” and to play a key role in ensuring that member states join forces to move forward together towards the 2030 and 2050 goals. According to EC (2019b), they should provide clarity and predictability to stimulate necessary investments and facilitate the programming of Member State investment. While the Long-Term Strategies cover the long-term perspective of at least 30 years, the NECPs mainly cover ten-year periods including updates within this period. For an up-to-date overview, see EC (2020c,b)

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