Governing Uncertainties in Sustainable Energy Transitions—Insights from Local Heat Supply in Switzerland

Basil Bornemann,Stephan Schmidt,Susanne Schubert

doi:10.17645/up.v1i3.673

Basil Bornemann, Stephan Schmidt + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v1i3.673

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Abstract

The governance of sustainable energy transitions (SET) is facing multiple technological, economic, societal and political uncertainties. In practice, these energy-related uncertainties play a role not only at the level of “major politics,” but also in the policymaking of local decision makers and planners. This paper seeks to attain a more differentiated understanding of how uncertainties concerning the energy transition play out and are dealt with in policymaking and planning “on the ground.” To do so, the paper combines conceptual reflections with an explorative empirical study on local heat supply policy in Switzerland. In conceptual regards, it proposes some distinctions of types of uncertainties related to energy transitions, and a typology of strategic decision options for dealing with uncertainty. On this basis, the paper reveals similarities and differences regarding the perception of uncertainties and ways of dealing with them in a number of Swiss cities. These insights evoke further questions about the causes and effects of different sensitivities to uncertainty and ways of dealing with them.

Highlights

Energy systems all over the world are currently facing two major challenges
As heat constitutes a major component of residential energy demand and the integration in renewable energies slows, this field is assumed to bear a crucial potential for realizing a sustainable energy transition (e.g., BMWI & BMU, 2010)
Apart from the identified similarities and differences among different governance arrangements, the three cases that we have looked at in more detail suggest that there might be a correspondence between types of uncertainty and strategies for dealing with them

Summary

Introduction

Energy systems all over the world are currently facing two major challenges. On the one hand, the existing infrastructures in many countries are reaching the end of their technical lifespans. The discourse about sustainable development (and its energyrelated storylines such as “peak-oil,” “climate change,” and “Fukushima”) is questioning the effectiveness and legitimacy of the incumbent energy systems and has brought about political pressure to reform these systems (Araújo, 2014; Solomon & Krishna, 2011) In light of these challenges, some countries have begun fostering sustainability-oriented transitions of their energy sys-. In Switzerland, for example, the federal government has come up with an overarching energy strategy, which includes goals such as the reduction of energy consumption, a further substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy, and the reduction of CO2 emissions While this strategy promotes a general national policy framework for the envisioned energy transition, the Swiss federalist system renders sub-national actors, such as cantons and municipalities, important players for the realization of the goals. These actors dispose of the main legislative and administrative competences in energy policy and planning (see Schubert, 2015) and, have to deal with the concrete challenges that come with the energy transition and its governance “on the ground.”

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