The green economy policy discourse has devoted a lot of attention to the design of public policy addressing low-carbon technologies. In this paper the researchers examine the impacts of public R&D support and feed-in tariff schemes on innovation in the wind energy sector. The analysis is conducted using patent application data for four western European countries over the period 1977–2009. Different model specifications are tested, and the analysis highlights important policy interaction effects. The results indicate that both public R&D support and feed-in tariffs have positively affected patent application counts in the wind power sector. The (marginal) impact on patent applications of increases in feed-tariffs has also become more profound as the wind power technology has matured. There is also some evidence of policy interaction effects in that the impact of public R&D support to wind power is greater at the margin if it is accompanied by the use of feed-in tariff schemes.
The Green Economy (GE) paradigm aims to reconcile environmental and socio-economic objectives. Policies to deploy renewable energy (RE) are widely perceived as a way to tap the potential synergies of these objectives. It is, however, still largely unclear whether the potential of simultaneously achieving both environmental and socio-economic objectives can be fully realized, and whether and how multiple objectives influence policy design, implementation, and evaluation. The paper aims to contribute to this aspect of GE research by looking at selected country experiences of renewable energy deployment with respect to the socio-economic goals of job creation or energy access. Across the cases examined, the reseachers find the following implications of relevance for the GE framework: First, they confirm the important role of governmental action for GE, with the specific need to state objectives clearly and build monitoring capacity. Second, consistent with the “strong” green growth variant of GE, some of the cases suggest that while renewable deployment may indeed lead to short-term socio-economic benefits, these benefits may not last.
The 2015 EU Energy Union Package proposes integrating renewables into the market, just as the UK has moved away from Premium Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) for renewable electricity supply (RES-E) to something closer to the standard FiT, which, when auctioned, demonstrated a 3% real fall in the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The UK, which has experimented with nearly all forms of RES-E support, offers the evidence base for designing the Energy Union’s RES-E support. Innovation needs a further redesign to deliver adequate funding, best done through country contributions to an EU-wide innovation competition.
Energy efficiency policies play a key role in the transformation to a ‘green energy economy’. This article takes stock of the impacts of the existing energy efficiency policy instruments in Germany and reviews the energy, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the country’s latest energy efficiency and climate strategies for the year 2020. The paper finds evidence supporting the findings of other studies that enhanced green energy policies will trigger tangible economic benefits in terms of GDP growth and new jobs even in the short term. Whereas policy makers have already acknowledged and implemented this conclusion in the case of renewable energies, this article shows that striving for more ambitious energy efficiency policies represents a similar win–win strategy, which should be exploited to a much larger extent.
In order to enhance energy efficiency as a pillar of transition to a green energy economy it is important to understand whether and under which conditions energy efficiency programs could have positive economic and social impacts. There are a growing number of studies on macroeconomic impacts of energy efficiency programs for various countries and regions. However, in Switzerland only few evaluations have been performed. The present study evaluates the impacts on GDP and employment of Geneva’s energy efficiency program portfolio éco21 which is operated by the local utility.
The term ‘Green Energy Economy’ (GEE) received increasing policy and scientific attention following the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, leading to the implementation of numerous ‘Green Growth’ economic stimulus packages that targeted low-carbon energy technologies. These initiatives were portrayed as key elements in the transition to a green economy, in which low-carbon energy systems would play a vital role. However, and setting aside conceptual variations, uncertainties and fragmented knowledge remain in the interplay between a green economy, low-carbon energy systems and governance. This research area raises various questions regarding the performance, implications and complexities of policies and strategies addressing GEE transitional pathways. In addition, achieving a GEE compatible with climate, social and economic goals is an enormous challenge for society, and goes beyond the technological domain. This special issue provides a series of articles that critically investigate these concerns from an interdisciplinary point of view, and provide relevant policy insights using a variety of analytical approaches.