Limits to polycentricity? Institutional layering and policy feedbacks of building energy performance requirements in Sweden

Abstract

AbstractLocal governments have come to play an increasingly active role in addressing current environmental challenges. In addition to improving the environmental performance of a specific city, such initiatives can potentially spur policy change at other levels of government and thereby contribute to the addressing of global environmental challenges. This type of interplay between local and higher levels of government has been insufficiently addressed by environmental governance research. This study addresses this research gap by looking at the case of regulatory energy performance requirements on buildings in Sweden. Through a case study methodology, the research turns to policy documents and interviews. The research shows how local energy performance requirements on buildings provided tensions that impeded their own longevity but contributed to raising ambitions in national regulation. The research contributes to work on polycentric governance by accounting for the existence of hierarchies through the use of concepts from historical institutionalism. In this regard, the study suggests that governance initiatives are prone to institutional layering that, through policy feedback processes, conditions their impact in terms of reaching overarching policy goals. The research is important as it adds empirical substance to the discussion on the potential and limits of local governments in addressing current environmental challenges.