The eye of every storm: policy entrepreneurs to strengthen the role of energy efficiency in EU climate policy

Background

Improving energy efficiency on a global scale is crucial to meet climate targets of the Paris Agreement and the UN sustainable development goal on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Energy efficiency is considered the first fuel in the clean energy transition. Contextualising this narrative, the energy efficiency first principle (EE1) was introduced as a concept in EU climate policy in 2015. EE1 was made legally binding in the EU in 2023, to be applied in policy, planning and investment decisions across all sectors that affect the energy system. Understanding the process through which new legislation is developed and adopted is important for understanding the policy itself. Understanding the policy process of EE1 is particularly important since it introduces a paradigm shift in EU energy and climate policy and provides better knowledge of transformative policy change which is of general importance for policy and governance towards a clean energy transition.

Results

This paper determines the decade-long policy process and the agency of policy entrepreneurs to make EE1 legally binding. Based on qualitative text analysis of policy documents, position papers and reports from EU negotiations, combined with interviews of key actors, the study shows how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as the European Commission were critical policy entrepreneurs in the process. NGOs considered the unequal treatment of energy supply and energy demand in EU energy policy to hamper efficient use of the energy system and suggested the EE1 principle to overcome this problem. Using linking strategies, relational management strategies, arena strategies, etc., NGOs persuaded the European Commission to propose legislation on EE1. But the initial framing was too technical for decision-makers to understand. Successful coupling of the problem–policy package to politics was done when problem-framing was revised, also referring to the Paris Agreement on climate change and the energy crisis in Europe following Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Conclusions

It is clear that coalition-building is important for policy entrepreneurs to gain broad acceptance for their policy proposals. In addition, timing and endurance of policy entrepreneurs is of great importance for coupling a problem–policy package to politics. Political decision-makers must be receptive to the problem and its policy solution. As for EE1, it took almost 7 years before the politics stream was mature and receptive to the policy. But as identified, the agency of policy entrepreneurs can conceal the relations between informal and formal decision-making powers and thus reduce accountability, legitimacy and justice in policymaking.