The Acceptance of Instruments among Energy Policy Key Players

This article deals with energy policy a policy domain of high relevance for sustainable development. Its important issues — CO₂ nuclear waste energy efficiency renewable energy — require diverse policy solutions and instruments at different societal levels as illustrated by several case studies in this volume. This contribution focuses on the cantonal and national level — thus complementing the focus on the municipalities — and on key players involved in political processes. The central question is how these political actors evaluate energy policy instruments. The instruments belong to three of the main instrument types presented in this volume namely collaborative agreements economic instruments and command and control instruments. For each type several concrete instruments have been selected including the tax on the energetic quality of buildings that is elaborated in the contribution by GARBELY and MCFARLANE. To put the key actors’ evaluations into perspective this study focuses on the political structure and analyses the power relation in the domain of energy policy. It attempts to give some indications of the barriers and opportunities that instruments for promoting energy efficiency may encounter in the political process. The analysis is based on empirical data from a survey of 240 key actors in the Swiss energy policy domain.