Abstract
Efforts to rescale governance arrangements to foster sustainable development are rarely simple in their consequences, an out-turn examined in this paper through an analysis of how the governance of renewable energy in the UK has been impacted by the devolution of power to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Theoretically, attention is given to the ways in which multiple modes of governing renewable energy, and the interactions between modes and objects of governance, together configure the scalar organization of renewable energy governance. Our findings show how the devolved governments have created new, sub-national renewable energy strategies and targets, yet their effectiveness largely depends on UK-wide systems of subsidy. Moreover, shared support for particular objects of governance—large-scale, commercial electricity generation facilities—has driven all the devolved government to centralize and expedite the issuing of consents. This leads to a wider conclusion. While the level at which environmental problems are addressed can affect how they are governed, what key actors believe about the objects of governance can mediate the effects of any rescaling processes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 480-502 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 17 Feb 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Event | Scale in environmental governance: power reconfiguration, democratic legitimacy and institutional (mis-)fit - Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin, Germany Duration: 7 Mar 2013 → 8 Mar 2013 http://www.irs-net.de/download/aktuelles/waterscale-conference_flyer.pdf |
Bibliographical note
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the symposium ‘Scale in environmental governance: power reconfiguration, democratic legitimacy and institutional (mis-)fit’, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin 7-8 March 2013. We would like to thank the symposium participants, special issue editors and three anonymous referees for their comments and advice.Keywords
- scale
- governance
- renewable energy
- UK
- devolution
Access to Document
- Rescaling the Governance of Renewable Energy Lessons from the UK Devolution Experience
# 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.