Renewable energies: A continuing balancing act?

The promotion of renewable energy sources (RES) has been on the systemic agenda in some European countries since the 1950s. In the 1990s, it moved on to the institutional agenda in many more countries, attracted by the expected potential to mitigate climate change, improve energy security, and provide new opportunities for industrial development and job creation. But at EU level, the path towards greater policy coordination has been a long and winding one. Despite the wave of enthusiasm for a stronger EU role in energy policy noted in Chapter 3, only the responsibility for market liberalisation – and for some science, technology and innovation aspects – currently resides at the EU level. This has made the deployment of RES primarily a matter of national energy policy. So, although there are widely thought to be strong and ‘compelling reasons for setting up an enabling framework to promote renewables’ in the EU (COM (2006) 848: 3), disagreements over its specific design look set to persist, not least because it could limit the freedom to pursue energy policy goals, a right currently enjoyed by the Member States.

The struggle to balance multiple objectives has frustrated the development of an EU-level RES policy since the 1970s. With hindsight, it is clear that policy has been driven by two main objectives, which in turn have flowed from rather different problem framings.