Anastasia Pavlenko: Political Limits to Green Energy Transitions: Lessons from 30 Years of EU Renewable Energy Policy

Anastasia Pavlenko, a PhD candidate at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy presented her paper on “Political Limits to Green Energy Transitions: Lessons from 30 Years of EU Renewable Energy Policy” at the The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA) workshop “Democracy and Ecology in Times of Climate Backlash” held at Sciences Po in Paris.

In her talk, Anastasia discussed how energy security, climate ambitions, technological change, financial constraints, and the recent “green backlash” have interacted to shape the trajectory of EU clean energy transitions over the past three decades.

She suggested that recent high electricity prices combined with lower costs of solar and wind were seen by EU policy-makers as an opportunity to simultaneously reduce subsidies and at the same time set unrealistically high targets. Yet paradoxically, the same high prices triggered people’s dissatisfaction with decisions made over their heads. Recent efforts to frame the expansion of renewable energy as a matter of energy security and national interest – thereby sidestepping democratic permitting procedures – risk undermining the legitimacy of government support for renewables and do little to counter public backlash.

Special thanks to Charlotte Halpern and Matteo Mandelli for bringing together such a diverse and inspiring group of researchers - and to all participants for the thoughtful and lively discussions.

Photo credit @Akos Kocsany