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2014 | Book

Introduction: The Tension between Science and Politics Read chapter Read first chapter

The European Commission’s Energy and Climate Policy

A Climate for Expertise?

Author: Jonas Dreger

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Book Series : Energy, Climate and the Environment

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book offers a deep insight into the genesis and development of the European Commission's energy and climate legislation, focusing on the interplay of politics and science. How does the Commission react when confronted with knowledge? According to the author, the Commission functions as catalyst transforming knowledge into politics.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
1. Introduction: The Tension between Science and Politics
Abstract
When Woodrow Wilson was still Governor of New Jersey in 1912, he made a statement exposing his strong feelings about his responsibilities to democracy:
What I fear, therefore, is a government of experts. God forbid that in a democratic country we should resign the task and give the government over to experts. What are we for if we are to be scientifically taken care of by a small number of gentlemen who are the only men who understand the job? Because if we don’t understand the job, then we are not a free people. We ought to resign our free institutions and go to school to somebody and find out what it is we are about.
(cited in Smith 1991, pp. 1–2)
Jonas Dreger
2. The Commission’s Strategies for Designing an Emissions Trading Scheme for the European Union
Abstract
This case study is the first of three that all aim to provide theory-ground ed, empirically rich contributions to an issue that has been haunting our discipline for decades: the role of knowledge in policy. The mechanisms of learning in a functionally differentiated Commission are addressed by identifying conditions under which learning takes place in different modes (politicized and technocratic). We argue that the organizational function of either mandate delivery or power maximization determines whether knowledge is used cognitively or instrumentally. The analysis of the policy-formulation process of the ETS — the EU’s market-based mechanism to reduce CO2l — will allow us to identify several strategies of knowledge utilization under these two different conditions.
Jonas Dreger
3. The Commission’s Puzzling and Powering over the Revision of the Emissions Trading Scheme
Abstract
The revision of the ETS was foreseen for 2008. The Commission’s work to publish its proposal is a perfect example of a purposeful adjustment of existing policies. It therefore combines instances of learning and — rather than learning for adaptation — of planned ‘instrument sequencing’, where a more interventionist option follows an unsuccessful softer policy option (Gunningham et al. 1998, p. 35). In the introductory paragraphs of this chapter, I will introduce the reform pressure that the Commission had to react to.
Jonas Dreger
4. The Commission’s Approach to Devising the Renewables Directive
Abstract
In March 2007, the European Council’ surprised many, including perhaps themselves’ (Buchan 2009, p. 137) by giving the go-ahead for the European Commission to develop a new directive promoting renewable energy in Europe. The resulting directive, which was adopted in 2008, pulls together parts of formerly independent legislation on subissues in the field of energy.
Jonas Dreger
5. Conclusion: The Commission as a Catalyst between Knowledge and Politics
Abstract
At the beginning of this work, I pointed to the existence of two different cities or worlds, as described with fine humor by Pal. Science was characterized as ‘heavenly and serene, with [… a] devotion to purity and truth’ and in opposition to politics, a ‘profane and passionate [state], heaving with vulgar life’ (Pal 1990, p. 143). At the end of this study, it has become clear that these two cities have long been merged. At the outskirts, these two different extreme descriptions might still be valid pictures, but the vast centre cannot be classified that purely. The European Commission has purposefully built bridges across the chasm. It has understood that without science, its proposals will not be sound, yet without politics, they will not be implementable.
Jonas Dreger
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
The European Commission’s Energy and Climate Policy
Author
Jonas Dreger
Copyright Year
2014
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN
978-1-137-38026-5
Print ISBN
978-1-349-47918-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380265