Thesis MSc Public Administration
Governing Markets: Regulation and Competition Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs.
Leiden University
ENERGY TRANSITION IN DUTCH MUNICIPALITIES
Manpreet Chand March 2018
Energy transition in Dutch Municipalities Master Thesis
Leiden University Author:
Manpreet Chand (s1191497) Master in Public Administration Leiden University
Manpreet.chand@gmail.com
Supervisor:
Dr. Maarja Beerkens
Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies Leiden University M.beerkens@fgga.leidenuniv.nl Second reader: Rik de Ruiter Associate Professor Leiden University R.de.ruiter@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
PREFACE 4 SUMMARY 5 1. INTRODUCTION 6 1.1PROBLEM STATEMENT 7 1.2ENERGY TRANSITION 9 1.4MOTIVATION 12
1.5RELEVANCE AND CONTRIBUTION 13
1.6THESIS STRUCTURE 14
2. ENERGY TRANSITION 14
2.1TECHNOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL PILLARS 16
2.2INSTITUTIONAL PILLAR 18
ECONOMICAL INSTRUMENT 19
COMMUNICATIVE INSTRUMENT 19
2.3ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FRAMEWORK 20
EU-LEVEL 20
NATIONAL-LEVEL 20
MUNICIPALITY-LEVEL 21
DECISION-MAKING IN MUNICIPALITIES 22
2.4HYPOTHESIS AND EXPLANATION 23
POLITICAL CONSTELLATION 23 DEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION 24 3. RESEARCH DESIGN 27 3.1DEPENDENT VARIABLE 28 3.2INDEPENDENT VARIABLES 29 3.3DATA COLLECTION 33 4. ANALYSIS 33
4.1.DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MUNICIPALITIES’ ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES 34
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SCORES (DISTRIBUTION AND STRUCTURE) 34
ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS OF THE DOMINANT PARTY 39
DEMOGRAPHICS CHARACTERISTICS 42
4.2RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES 44
ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS HAS IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SCORES 45
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SCORES AND RESIDENTIAL STATUS 45
ELDERLY DEPENDENCY RATIO HAS IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SCORES 45
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY SCORES AND INCOME PER HOUSEHOLD 46
5. CONCLUSION 48
5.1 DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION 49
Preface
This Master thesis is the final part of my study Master in Public Administration, specialisation in Governing Markets: Regulation and Competition at University Leiden, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The Master thesis was conducted between September 2017 and March 2018.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to Dr. Maarja Beerkens for giving me the opportunity, direction and encouragement during the entire thesis project. Without the continued support and guidance of my supervisor and guide Dr. Maarja Beekens, it would have been very challenging to complete this thesis.
Second, I would like to thank my loving, caring and supporting parents Amarjeet Chand and Santosh Rani Chand. They supported and encouraged me with their blessings and unconditional love. Without them, I would not be where I am now.
Third, I would like to thank my ex-colleague and friend Mr. Kaushik Khakhar (CEO TOBLOCKCHAIN B.V.) who inspired me to write this thesis about the energy transition in Dutch Municipalities. This thesis is also incorporation of my learning’s from my internship at TOBLOCKCHAIN B.V. Mr. Kaushik gave me feedback on my research and helped with presenting my ideas and achievements.
I also want to thank those civil servants working for Municipalities that filled in the survey. Without their answers on the questions I would not be able to conduct this research successfully.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends Ajay Sharma, Daljinder Singh and Navdeep Kumar and sister Simarta Chand for sparing their valuable time whenever I approached them for additional guidance.
Manpreet Chand March 2018
Summary
According to many scientists, climate change makes our world a place that will suffer more extreme weather events, such as more storms and greater droughts. It is going to affect every human being living on the planet. With 9 billion people by 2050 (all competing for energy resources) we need a better plan how to distribute these resources efficient and effective and how to make the things that we are depending on. Climate change can be discussed in two ways. First way is climate adaptation, which is adjusting to the consequences of climate change. Second way is climate mitigation, which is preventing further climate change. Climate mitigation refers to efforts by governments to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases. Reducing or preventing emissions of greenhouse gases can be realized by for example, using new technologies and renewable energies, making older equipment more energy efficient, changing management practices or consumer behavior.
Governments from all over the world are developing and implementing several environmental polices to mitigate the climate change. The Dutch government is developing and implementing several national environmental policies since 1990 to mitigate the climate change. The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), a Counsel that advises the Dutch governments and Parliament, developed several national energy agreement. One of the plans is the climate action plan called Energieakkoord voor duurzame groei, developed in 2013. Dutch government is delegating tasks to lower governments such as Municipalities in order to realize energy transition. The purpose of this graduation thesis is to investigate the effect of local political constellation and local demographic characteristics on adoption of local environment policies in Municipalities. Production of energy from renewable sources often depends on local or regional SMEs. The opportunities for local business development, sustainable growth and high-quality employment that investments in regional and local production of energy from renewable sources are dependent on local institutional frameworks. It is important to ensure better access to finance and information by Municipalities to foster investments in local renewable energy and realize energy transition. Data for this thesis were collected from existing national climate portals and national data platforms. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that environmental friendliness of dominant political party and elderly dependency ratio in the Municipality play a significant role in determining the adoption level of local environmental policies. The average income per
households and residential status does not play a significant role in determining the adoption level of local environmental policies.
Today’s world is experiencing several climate problems as rising global temperature, rising sea levels, cyclones that become heavier and melting glaciers. At the moment more people are realizing that climate change is a real issue that has to be solved, which needs to be translated in to international (e.g. energy agreements), national (e.g. climate plan) and local initiatives and agreements. The climate challenges are taking a global character, while the approach to tackle these challenges in terms of actors and institutions that are involved is becoming more scattered (Smedby, 2016). Furthermore, the approach to tackle climate challenge is becoming decentralized where local governments as Municipalities and Provinces take responsibility.
The Paris Agreement in December 2015 substantially increased the level of global ambition on climate change mitigation, with signatories committing to holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and to pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5°C above pre-industrial levels (United nations, 2015). The Union needs to prepare for much deeper and faster cuts in emissions than previously foreseen, in order to shift to a highly energy efficient and renewables-based energy system at the latest by 2050. At the same time, such reductions are feasible at a lower cost than previously assessed, given the pace of development and deployment of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar.
1.1 Problem Statement
The Netherlands is one of the first countries that developed in 1990 a national climate change policy. The aim of this policy was to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 3 to 5 % by the year 2000 (Gupta et al., 2007: 171-172). The Netherlands is ambitious in developing national climate targets in order to tackle the climate change problem by realizing energy transition. The so called energy transition is the transition from fossil to renewable energy sources, more efficient energy management and decentralization of the energy systems (e.g. local energy generations). Currently, one of the Dutch climate plans is the climate action plan called Energieakkoord voor duurzame groei. This climate action plan is based on 5 target schemes and one of the targets is about increase of renewable energy production by 14 % in 2020 (Energieakkoord SER, 2017). The total share of renewable energy production in the Netherlands is less than 5.9 % (2016) and in 2015 it was only 5.8 % (CBS, 2017a). This means that there is a very little growth between the two years, which is a noteworthy. It means that in the coming two years there is need for an increase in 8 % in total share of renewable energy production.
National climate targets are difficult to meet when policies are only steered through central governments. As centrally planned approach often raise problem of supply reliability that could be created if the withdrawal was not well planned on local level (Wood et al., 2015). As the closest level of government to citizens, local governments play a crucial role in building public support for the country’s energy and climate goals, while deploying more decentralised and integrated energy systems. In other words, every local government authority (Municipality) should create the institutional framework (policies) where renewable energy production should be advocated. It is important to ensure better access to finance for cities, towns, and regions to foster investments in local renewable energy.
The Dutch energy sector is a complex whole of technical, social and institutional components, which are dependent on each other (Hoppe et al., 2016: 5). In order to realize the energy 2020-target, promoting of renewable energy generation, storage and efficient use is needed in the daily operations of society, industry and government (Raven, 2004: 5). Although global and national targets, ambitions and objectives to tackle the climate and promote energy transition remain important, local governments, especially Municipalities, are playing an increasingly more important and vital role (Engelken et al., 2016; Hoppe et al., 2016). Municipalities appear to be suitable to realize the energy transition as local authorities can recognize potential local opportunities to promote the transition (Raven, 2004; Gustafsson and Ivner, 2011). Furthermore, Municipalities play a strategic role in planning the energy transition. Municipalities are often the first public link to its citizens in the implementation process of a policy, which makes them more accessible, better attuned to local needs and thereby they have the ability to realize and promote energy transition (Raven, 2004; Engelken et al., 2016; Warbroek and Hoppe, 2016; Rezessy et al., 2004).
Thus, local authorities are important government actors in the realization of energy transition. Local authorities have the knowhow of their own Municipalities and are able to translate the knowhow in the effective energy planning and environmental policy when it comes to implementing local energy strategies (Gustafsson and Ivner, 2011). Municipalities play a critical role in promoting and realizing the energy transition, as local action is adaptable and can be implemented less bureaucratically and policies can be adjusted more quickly than an action by higher-level governments (Bae, 2012: 5; NL Agency and Climate Change, 2010: 3). This translates into the fact that Municipalities feel more responsible for implementation of
energy transition policy (NRC, 2017). As there are no benchmarks or other conditions, Municipalities are free to develop their own institutional framework. There is a difference between Municipalities’ policymaking process regarding how intensively they promote, initiate, develop or use various policy instruments to realize energy transition. This thesis will identify and analyse the determinants, and the differences among Dutch Municipalities regarding their local climate policies.
1.2 Energy transition
The energy transition is “a particular significant set of changes to the patterns of energy use in the society, potentially affecting resources, carriers, converters, and services” (O’Connor, 2010: 8). In other words, it is about adoption of renewable energy with low or no carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel based energy with relatively high carbon dioxide emissions. Further, energy transition goes much broader than only explaining the transformation from fossil to renewable energy. The energy transition is based on four pillars (Figure 1), which are the technological, economical, social and the institutional pillar (Kamangir en Post, 2017). It means that beside concentrating on development of technologies that generate renewable energy it is also important that attention is paid to the development of economic, social and institutional support for renewable energy-based systems. For example, from an economic perspective energy gives the ability to perform (labor), to develop tangible products and therfore it is a carrier of the genuine economy. Furthermore, energy itself is not a problem, but the environment in, which the energy is located determines whether or not we can speak of a problem. When someone says something about the problems of fossil energy he also makes a statement about how the enviroment, society, the market and politics. Finally, in order to promote renewable energy technologies, new insitutions are needed, which are developed by governments to support these new technologies. The current energy era is driven by the global warming crisis. An unprecedented transformation process is in progress from a carbon-based energy market to an energy market based on renewable energy sources like wind-, solar-, hydro-, geothermal- and bio-energy. The new sources of energy are no monopolies. Everyone can become an energy provider (Figure 2). For instance, when a small community of farmers decides to deploy a small windmill park on their land, they can do so; or, an individual person installs solar cells on his rooftop to generate his own green energy; or, a company installing innovative windows in the new office building to collect solar energy. The move towards decentralised energy production has many benefits, including the utilisation of local energy sources, increased local security of energy supply, shorter transport
distances and reduced energy transmission losses. Such decentralisation also fosters community development and cohesion by providing income sources and creating jobs locally. Renewable energy communities, cities and local authorities should be entitled to participate in available support schemes on an equal footing with other large participants. To support renewable energy production and realize the energy transition there is a need of government support in the form of pro-environmental policy. Governments are using legal, economical and communicative policy instruments to support the so called energy transition (Van den Heuvel, 2012). The aim of these policy instruments is to steer the behaviour of the citizens in a way that it is not only supporting, but also contributing to realize the energy transition. The change towards renewable energy is also supported by the citizens.
Figure 1. Four pillars of the energy transition
Source: Kamangir and Post, 2017.
1.3 Context, objective and question
In today’s world, rapid climate change and depleting natural resources (e.g. fossil fuels) are two important issues (Nel and Cooper, 2009). Governments at all levels (EU, state and Municipality) are implementing policies, which include laws, regulations, standards, rules, economical and social incentives that facilitate the energy transition (Van Staden, 2017: 17). While global, national and regional attempts to tackle climate threat stay important, “Municipalities and community groups are playing an increasingly strong and important role in fostering energy transition” (Rowse, 2014: 1). In current scenario, Dutch Municipalities are following two type of environmental policies; a) policies that are imposed by the state government and b) policies that are developed by themselves. This gives the Netherlands a character of a decentralized Unitarian State (Harmeling and Wijngaart, 2017; Breeman et al., 208). In other words, certain administrative tasks are given by the central government to lower levels of governments, such as Municipalities. The focus on this research lies on local
Technological Social
Economical Institutional
Energy transition
environmental institutions, which are developed by Municipalities in order to realize the energy transition.
Institutions in general are “formal and informal rules that organise social, political and economical relations (North, 1990). Institutions are needed because citizens, businesses, and industries expect the governments to deal with major problems like climate change, and to guide and protect them. Recent outcome of a survey held by the European Commission showed that European citizens expect action from their governments to tackle the climate change; four in ten EU respondents say that the responsibility for tackling climate change lies with national governments (European Commission, 2017a). Thereby governments are using different rules and regulations (legal, economical and communicative) to steer the behaviour of the citizens (van Staden, 2017: 20).
Figure 2. Transformation energy system
Source: Kamangir and Post, 2017.
The Netherlands has 388 Municipalities. The Municipalities differ from different perspectives as rural or urban, industrial or agricultural, total inhabitants, average income, average education, etc. Municipalities differ in what they do and that also leads to different policy implementations to realize the energy transition. So, difference in Municipality characteristics
leads to the fact that Municipalities differ in their local policies. The objective of this thesis is to understand the local environment policies and instruments, which are addressing energy transition and understand the conditions that support energy transition at the local level. This thesis will only focus on decentral environment policies (Municipality level). Other alternatives such as central environmental policies and European environmental policies are not included due limited time (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Local environment policy determinants
Source: Chand, 2018.
Research question
The research question of this thesis is as follows: “What explains the difference between Municipalities’ vis-à-vis environmental policy regarding energy transition?” In order to analyse the effect, the comparative quantitative analysis will include several environmental local policies such as legal, economic and communicative policies regarding energy transition. To explain the differences between Municipalities, factors as Municipality characteristics and political constellation are used.
1.4 Motivation
Climate change is one of the most common agenda items of the century. As mentioned in other researches (Engelken et al., 2016; Hoppe et al., 2016; Raven, 2004; Gustafsson and Ivner, 2011; Bae, 2012) local policies are important in order to meet (local, national and
Municipality: Local energy policy EU directives National policies Political constellation • Political environmental friendlinessof dominant party Demographic composition • Age composition • Socio-economic class • Residential status
international) climate targets and realize energy efficiency and energy transition. It is a collective action because decisions on, for example, reducing carbon dioxide are made independently, but outcomes are enjoyed by all involved actors (Bae, 2012; Ostrom, 2008). This is also known as the tragedy of the commons. It is important that environment policies are set in a way that it will promote the energy transition on EU, state and local level. Policy matters and realization of the energy transition will also need policy analysis on local level, which has the ability to steer behaviour and actions of local citizens.
In this research 388 Municipalities are analysed regarding their local environmental policy. The motivation behind the research of local policies and instruments for addressing energy transition is that it is important to know the conditions that support energy transitions on local level. Therefore this thesis offers an innovative comparison tool that compares Municipalities regarding their environmental policy for decentral policy makers, but also central policy makers. Furthermore, climate change issue will be at the forefront in the coming years, because climate change is a long-term problem, and on-going scientific and technologic innovations will continue to shape and reshape our understanding of the problem. The public opinion and media plays an important role in raising the attention on climate change for policy makers. Studies show that people are aware of the problem and believe that global warming is a very serious problem, and that the problems have been increasing the past years (Leiserowitz, 2007). A survey requested by the European Commission gave impressive results about the attention in climate change with public. As a result, 91% see climate change as a serious problem, with 69% considering it a very serious problem. Almost half of all Europeans (46%) think that climate change is one of the world’s most serious problems and around one in six (15%) think it is the single most serious problem that the world faces (European Commission, 2017b: 20-32).
1.5 Relevance and contribution
The Dutch government has set challenging targets for increasing energy efficiency, growing use of renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving these goals requires a supply of new technologies, but even more importantly, an understanding of economic, institutional and social factors. The thesis will increase knowledge about different policies on local level, which are translated from EU directives and national climate. This thesis will be relevant for decision- and policy makers because it will give insight regarding different conditions (of Municipalities), which impacts local environmental policy.
Furthermore, the national government can also benefit from this thesis by developing a benchmark for Municipalities, which can be applied to all Municipalities. The contribution of the thesis is that it applies the impact of political constellation, domestic geographical and demographical diffusion in a comparative analysis that goes beyond single case studies. 1.6 Thesis structure
Chapter one outlines the motivation, research methodology and relevance of this thesis. This chapter highlights a clear need for research on the subject energy transition in the Netherlands on a local decentralized level. In Chapter two, the concept of energy transition is addressed. This includes background, motivations and the impact on policies on different levels. Importantly, in this Chapter is the theoretical framework regarding policy instruments that local governments use to achieve certain goals and about determinants that have an impact on energy transition. In Chapter three, the methodological framework of this research is given with also a description of the context on the Dutch local government. In Chapter four, the results of this research are presented, which includes an overview of the main findings and hypothesis testing. Finally, in Chapter five, the conclusion and discussion is presented, which includes the contribution to the science and provides recommendations for further research. This Chapter also includes the discussion on the main limitation of the study and opportunities for future research.
2. Energy Transition
of the causes of climate change is the increasing amount of carbon dioxide emission produced by humans. Ever since the industrial revolution has taken place, concentration of carbon dioxide has risen as well. This initially relative small concentration of carbon dioxide was circulating on the surface, which was not harmful for the ecosystem. However the natural and stable circulation of carbon dioxide occurred for hundred million years. During the time things changed, the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from emission has given a rise to the atmospheric temperature. As mentioned in the book “The Zero Marginal Cost Society” written by Jeremy Rifkin, a social thinker, “the entropic bill for the Industrial Age has arrived” (Rifkin, 2014: 4). Human behaviour is the cause of extra carbon dioxide in the cycle, which in the end is leading to a polluted earth. The question that arises now is: which factors led to this situation? Large corporations, but also governments (e.g. OPEC agreements) are retrieving billions of tons of carbon that’s been buried under the ground for hundreds of millions of years, which is not part of the carbon cycle. By retrieving these fossil fuels the human contribution of emission has risen further, leading to a situation where the entire population has to deal with all kinds of climate change issues such as global warming, melting glaciers and rising sea levels.
The word transition means “a change from a present state to a future state” (Engie, 2017). The energy transition is referring to the shift, where the energy production and consumption based on fossil fuels (non-renewable energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal) is shifting towards a sustainable, renewable energy production and consumption. According to Post and Kamangir, energy experts of a think tank called Topsector Energie explain that the energy transition is based on four pillars, which are 1) technological, 2) economical, 3) social and 4) institutional (Kamangir en Post, 2017: 6). As they mention “energy transition is not only a complicated technical operation where non-renewable joules are replaced by renewable joules” (Kamangir en Post, 2017: 6). The energy transition is a transition that requires development of socio-economic transformation by eradicating energy shortages, end energy poverty and creating a pollution free environment (Energy Transition Commission, 2017). Governments are playing an important role in realizing and promoting the energy transition by enabling change with new industry structures, standards, policies, regulations and financing models. Governments are using policy instruments, for example to make renewable energy more attractive by introducing tax benefits on its generation or making fossil based energy more expensive by introducing tariffs. The following paragraphs (2.1 and 2.2) will describe the energy transition pillars.
2.1 Technological, social and economical pillars
This thesis will focus on the institutional pillar of the energy transition, but it does not mean that other pillars are less important. This paragraph will give a general description of what is meant by technological, social and economic pillar.
Technological pillar
The UN expects that the population will grow to about 11 billion by the end of the century (UN, 2017). As the population will grow, it will involve the consumption of energy, which will also need more generation of energy. Today, most of the energy is from fossil fuels (80.8%), but there are many arguments against the fossil fuels, as discussed. Fossil fuels are limited in their source and exploitation of fossil fuels is becoming increasingly expensive, unsafe and dangerous for the environment. Technology is an important factor in the energy transition, because without the technology energy transition is not possible. Assets as windmills, solar panels, geothermal installations and biogas plants are an example of renewable energy generators: windmills which are moved by the power of the wind and then create electricity; hydro-electric power stations kinetic where energy drives the generator; wave- and tidal power plants which use the natural movements of the sea to produce the energy. There are two major forms of solar energy. First are the solar collector heater transmission mediums. In a small scale, this includes hot water heaters for individual households. Second are the solar photovoltaic cells are able to convert the sun’s rays directly to electricity. These systems are often installed on rooftops. Geothermal energy can also be absorbed by collectors. Few meters below the earth surface the increased temperature can be high enough to supply heat to households. In regions with high underground temperatures even electricity can be generated in this way. Biomass from animal and vegetable substances, such as organic waste from agriculture and households can generate electricity or converted in fuel (Rifkin, 2014). The energy transition offers a number of opportunities for the high tech industry, which can become a key industry in realizing the energy transition and strengthen the sustainable economy (Kamangir and post, 2017). Large wind farm, solar panels on roof tops and biogas plants are an example of technical solution for generating renewable energy. A carbon dioxide neutral society is only possible by offering innovative technologies, which support sustainability. The technical solutions are enabling the transition in the way that there is a transformation possible where non-renewable joules are replacing renewable joules.
The social impact can be explained by the fact that households are changing in small power plants by producing renewable energy on their own roof with solar panels. The energy transition has a relatively big impact on the society, because of enabling people to generate their own renewable energy (Kamangir and Post, 2017; Rifkin, 2014). Consumers of energy are becoming ‘prosumers’ of energy. A ‘prosumer’ stands for an individual who generates and consumes its own energy. Households are able to produce renewable energy. The energy transition is also a transformation from being a passive society towards being an active society. An active society is a society where citizens have a high responding speed, high learning capacity and high creativity level. Citizen involvement can be expressed in three different ways: 1) policy participation 2) social participation and 3) social initiatives. Policy and social participation are initiatives organized by policy makers for the citizens to get involved. Citizens are not forced to collaborate and can voluntarily join the initiatives. The third form of participation, social initiatives, is initiatives organized by the citizens themselves (Van den Heuvel, 2012).
Economical pillar
The frameworks of the First and Second Industrial Revolutions were designed to become centralized institutions with top-down command and control mechanism. The first and second industrial revolutions are considered as turning points as production went from hand based manufacturing to machine based production (Scott, 2017; Rifkin, 2014). Another point is that fossil fuels are only found in certain places and require centralized management to move them from underground to the end users. As described by Jeremy Rikin “centralized energies, in turn, require centralized, vertically integrated forms of communication in order to manage the momentous speed-up in commercial transactions made possible by the, in that time, sources of power” (Rifkin, 2014: 28). Also, the first energy revolution has been driven by the emergence of fossil based energy sources, where steam engines, fuel engines and power plants are complying the energy demand. At the moment, fossil fuels are by far the dominant energy source in economies, and the main source of energy production growth in developing economies (Timmons et al., 2014).
Apart from development and environmental benefits, renewable energies have the potential to provide increased security and economic stability. Increased use of renewable energy sources would reduce dependence on expensive fossil fuel imports and would help many countries improve their balance of payments. The opportunities for establishing economic growth through innovation and a sustainable competitive energy policy have been recognised.
Production of energy from renewable sources often depends on local or regional SMEs. The opportunities for local business development, sustainable growth and high-quality employment that investments in regional and local production of energy from renewable sources bring about in the Netherlands and local regions are important.
2.2 Institutional pillar
The institutional pillar is about, policies and decisions that governments take in order to realize a certain goal. Renewable energies are produced from different sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Governments are using different policies to meet the energy needs from different renewable sources, lower dependence on fossil fuels and make the energy production more sustainable (European Commission, 2017c). The governments are serving public interest and are using different policy instruments to steer the society. A widely used format to categorize these instruments is done by means of the nature/goal of a particular instrument (Van den Heuvel, 2012: 21-29). The institutional pillar is divided in three policy instruments, which are legal, economical and communicative. Table 1 gives an overview of the type of policy instrument and its particular goal.
Table 1. Policy instruments according to the nature of the instrument
Policy instrument Nature/goal of the instrument Example
Legal Compulsion Law, regulation, levy, prohibition
Economical Transaction Contract, subsidy, tax, (feed-in)
tariff, quota
Communicative Persuasion Information, public relations,
advertisement, propaganda
Source: Van den Heuvel, 2012.
Legal instrument
The first category of instruments that is widely used by governments is with the purpose of commanding citizens. The fundamental idea behind this category is that the government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force to keep order, which is democratically legitimized. The government sets the legal boundaries and citizens are by law and regulation not allowed
to cross these boundaries. Examples of legal policy instruments are: sustainable purchase of products and services by government authorities (article 6 of European Energy Directive) or energy performance norms (Harmelink and Wijngaart, 2017). The government has a paternalistic position and by using law and regulation it is steering and managing the society (Van den Heuvel, 2012: 21-29).
Economical instrument
The second category is the economic policy instrument, which is used as a financial incentive to steer and manage the behaviour of society. With the financial instrument it is important to know how far the instrument is impacting the cost-benefit decision-making behaviour of the citizen. Governments try to create an ideal social behaviour by means of introducing positive or negative financial incentives. There are two major options to do this, which are subsidy or levy. A subsidy is a benefit, which is usually provided by governments to its citizens, businesses or institutions. “The subsidy is typically given to remove some type of burden, and it is often considered to be in the overall interest of the public, given to promote a social good or an economic policy” (Investopedia, 2017). It makes the service or good more attractive by providing a financial aid comparing to the alternative, which is not getting the financial aid. A levy has the opposite goal compared to a subsidy. A levy is to make the service or good less attractive, because of the negative impact on the society by the use of it. By adding an additional excise duty on it, it makes the good or service more expensive and less attractive compared to the alternative. Governments are using economical policy instruments to make particular goods and service more attractive or less attractive compared to the alternative. On the other hand, excise duty on fossil fuels makes fossil fuel more expensive and less attractive to buy (Van den Heuvel, 2012: 21-29). Examples of economical policy instrument are: energy tax benefits and subsidy on energy generators (e.g. solar panels, wind mills) (Harmelink and Wijngaart, 2017).
Communicative instrument
The third category is based on communication. The communication instrument is used to convince the citizen that the alternative behaviour is better compared to the current behaviour. Governments cannot force the citizen to change this behaviour with the instrument. Communicative instruments are used to steer the society by communicating information via advertisements on television or social media channels. Instead of forcing the citizens to change their behaviour (by law or by financial incentives), governments use lobby and media
tools to impact the behaviour (Van den Heuvel, 2012: 21-29). Examples of communicative policy instruments are green deals (Harmelink and Wijngaart, 2017). Green Deals is an interactive policy instrument where Municipalities give local sustainable initiatives space to develop innovative sustainable initiatives, which are organized by societies (Green Deals, 2017). Therefore, Municipalities eliminate regulatory issues and create new markets by providing relevant information to optimize partnerships with stakeholders. Green Deals are realized through clear agreements with participants about the targets and added value of each partner in the deal.
2.3 Environmental Policy Framework
Environmental policy instrument evolves in different levels such as European level, national level and local level. This paragraph will provide an overview of the link between the three levels and will explain the Dutch local environmental policy framework.
EU-level
Climate change is a worldwide threat because of its global challenge, which is not respecting national borders. “It is an issue that requires solutions that need to be coordinated at the international level and it requires international cooperation to help developing countries move towards a low-carbon economy” (United Nations, 2015). The European Parliament has introduced 5 energy directives (legal instruments) with the goal to implement energy policies and reach a certain target in the entire EU. Nevertheless, countries are free to develop their own law and regulation as long as they are in line with the common directive. In short, a directive has to be translated into national policy and is therefore not directly applicable. An example of an energy directive is the 2020 climate and energy package, which includes three targets: 1) 20 % cut in green house gas emissions from 1990 levels, 2) at least 20% share for renewable energy and 3) at least 20 % improvement in energy efficiency (European Commission, 2017c).
National-level
The EU directives are general and legally binding, meaning that every member state has to reach the same target. However, the methods used by the countries are not bound to rules, which could mean that there are different approaches in order to reach the targets. Thereby, a clear vision and consistent policy on national level is needed. A national climate action plan is therefore developed through cooperation of private parties (businesses), decentral government authorities and local corporations that support sustainability. An example of one of the Dutch
climate actions is the 5-targets scheme: increase of renewable energy production (14% in 2020 and 16% in 2023), creation of 15.000 new jobs, at least 20% improvement in energy efficiency, reduction of 100 petajoules (in 2020) and 1,5% reduction of energy use (per year) (Energieakkoord SER, 2017). EU directives in the Netherlands are translated into two areas: regulation and stimulation. Examples of the regulation tools are: energy tax, energy table/certification and periodic inspections (e.g. buildings). The stimulation tools are fiscal measures, subsidies (SDE, ISDE), offsetting (trading the generated energy) and postal code agreement (initiative where people from the same postal code area join a local corporation in order to invest jointly in a wind mill, which is put in their postal code).
Municipality-level
Local authorities (Provinces and Municipalities) are important when it comes to interpretation and implementation of national environmental policy and targets within their local circumstances (Rowse, 2014). There are three arguments that explain why Municipalities are important when it comes to developing law and regulation regarding energy transition. First, local authorities are closest to the citizens as a public institution. Municipalities understand the local context and needs better and therefore can easily device their own policy, which is relatively more accurate towards meeting the local context and needs. Second, Municipalities have several responsibilities as spatial planning, maintenance of infrastructure and facilitating information when it comes to forming and implementing energy transition strategies. Finally, Municipalities have better insight in local hands-on projects, which can be supported by local governments if needed (Ivned and Gustafsson, 2011). In the recent research rapport, Energy Agenda, published by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, is mentioned that “the society has a growing number of (local) initiatives to shape the energy transition and its environment” (Ministry of Economic affairs, 2017: 89). These social initiatives are only possible if Municipalities are acting openly and being responsive by creating space for such sustainable initiatives. It is important that Municipalities continue to invest in greater awareness and social acceptance of energy transition (Ministry of Economic affairs, 2017). Creating awareness and social acceptance are only possible if there is a clear story about the urgency and necessity of transition, policy consistency and sharing of knowledge and best practices (Ministry of Economic affairs, 2017). This local dialog between Municipalities and their citizens is needed because of the direct impact of energy transition on the living environment of the citizens.
The Dutch national government is providing freedom to regional- and local governments to design their own environmental policy to support and promote the energy transition more effectively and efficiently (Harmelink and Wijngaart, 2017). The cooperation between Municipalities and local initiative participants (grid operators, companies, cooperatives) will play an important role when making policy decisions on the energy transition. The decisions will have a strong regional/local influence, because every region has different characteristics and therefore requires a different approach (Milfornt, et al., 2012; Van Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Klimaattabel Politiek, 2016; Feygina et al. 2010; Dunlap, 1975; Malkis and Grasmick, 1977; Maslow, 1970; Tremblay and Dunlap, 1978; Harry et al., 1969; Hendee, 1969). Given the impact of the energy transition on citizens, it will require a legitimate democratic decision-making with room for input from citizens trough local initiatives.
Decision-making in Municipalities
The traditional administrative layers of the Netherlands are State, Province and Municipality. The Municipality level is the most visible level for citizens. According to article 6 of the Municipality law, political institution of a Municipality consists of three pillars, which are Council (Gemeenteraad), Executive (College van Burgemeester en Wethouders) and the Mayor (Burgemeester). The highest Executive Committee of the Municipality is, according to article 125 of the Constitution, the Council. The Council is the democratic institution on local level, which has directly been elected for a period of four years by the residents of the Municipality. The Council consist of several members from different local and national political parties. The Executives conduct the day-to-day management of the Municipality and are also the executers of the policy. The Council appoints the Executives, also called the Aldermen (Allers, et al., 1999). Finally, the Mayor is the chairman of the Council and Executives and appointed with commitments, such as representing en coordinating tasks and maintaining public order and safety (Breeman et al., 2010).
Political parties take seat in the Council of a Municipality depending on the number of votes of citizens. The Council is an institution that establishes and tests policy frameworks and evaluates whether the Municipal Executive has implemented the policy according to the agreement. The Council members use amendments and motions in order to express their opinion regarding a policy, which is proposed by the Executives (Article 84 of the Constitution: right of the amendment and motion). An amendment is a change in an official
document, such as proposal for a regulation or decision. A motion is a motivation or argument about a subject, but it has no legal meaning in the sense that an Alderman can be held accountable for the execution or non-execution of a motion. Each member of the Council is allowed to submit an amendment or a motion. In the decision-making process, for example, when having to accept or decline an amendment or motion, all Council members are asked to vote “in favour” or “against” the proposal. So, if a majority of the Council adopts a motion, it adds pressure to act upon it. If the majority of the Council members are against the proposal, than the proposal (motion or amendment) is rejected. In this situation, domination of a particular political party is important in determining public policy, since a dominant party can add more pressure as they have more seats in the Council (Breeman et al., 2010; Boers, 2014). 2.4 Hypothesis and explanation
Implementation of environmental policies can be influenced by a number of factors. In this thesis the focus is on political constellation (Milfont, et al., 2012; Van Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Klimaattabel Politiek, 2016; Feygina et al. 2010; Dunlap, 1975) and demographic composition (Malkis and Grasmick, 1977), such as socio-economic status (Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Maslow, 1970), age composition and residential status (Tremblay and Dunlap, 1978; Van Liere and Dunlap; 1980; Harry et al., 1969; Hendee, 1969).
Political constellation
An important condition, which make a high impact on local policymaking are political parties associated in the Council. Political parties are the decision makers in the Council where citizens play an important role in the policy process by voting for (or against) political parties that have a commitment in realizing energy transition (Milfont, et al., 2012). This will put progressive left parties in one corner and conservative right parties in the other corner in discourses on climate policy (Esping-Andersen, 1999; Toshkov, 2013). Left progressive and libertarian political parties are often more concerned about environmental issues compared to right conservative authoritarian political parties (Milfornt, et al., 2012; Van Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Klimaattabel Politiek, 2016; Feygina et al. 2010; Dunlap, 1975). Figure 4 gives a visual insight of the political party spectrum. This statement is supported by the outcome of a study on political parties regarding to their attitude towards environmental policies. The results are translated into a political climate label and show that progressive left parties are relatively more concerned about climate and have relatively far-reaching approach in order to tackle the climate threat and realizing energy transition compared to conservative right parties (Feygina
et al., 2010). Environmental parties support environmental legislation and regulation and are more likely to commit in environmental friendly behaviour (Klimaattabel Politiek, 2016). Another point is that using climate policy instruments has important economic implications. By introducing energy taxes on prices of goods and services will mean that industries may suffer from the economic impact of introduction of taxation. Since conservative right parties are considered pro-business, they will be more likely to be against any policy that wills detriment the business (Toshkov, 2013). The expectation is that Municipalities with a Council dominated by environmental friendly parties will introduce relatively more environmental policies compared to Municipalities with relative less friendly environmental parties. The political constellation will determent whether a Municipality is environmental friendly by using the measurement tool climate label.
Hypothesis 1: Local environmental policies introduced by a Municipality are explained by differences in political constellation.
Figure 4. Political party spectrum in the Netherlands
Source: Parlement en Politiek, 2012. Demographic composition
Prior research showed that demographic composition could account for the differences in the types of policies that Municipalities introduce. Several scholars have considered demographic composition as potential explanation for local environmental policies. Demographic compositions (e.g. age, average income and residential status) bring certain political views, which then entail certain political preferences and party constellation in Council. By
controlling of policy creating in particular political constellation, Municipalities can create a unique political environment that prompts specific expectation about government performance and policy delivery (Henderson, 2010). While there is sufficient research done on demographic composition and its effects on policies. There is hardly any research on the effects of demographic composition on environmental policies. As this is an important topic, future research should be done in this topic.
Age composition
Malkis and Grasmick (1977), discuss that age composition plays a significant role in concern of different age groups about climate change. According to the authors, young people tend to be more concerned about climate change compared to the elderly. The consequences of climate change often are experienced as threatening (e.g. cyclones, rising sea level, increasing temperature) and therefore possibly need important adjustments in 1) traditional values, 2) habitual behaviours, and 3) existing institutions. Because of possible radical change in the three areas, it is logical that younger people will support climate change reforms and accept environmental initiatives and political ideologies eagerly compared to the elderly (Malkis and Grasmich, 1977; Liere and Dunlap, 1980). Elderly (65+) are more used to traditional values, behaviours and institutions and are less appreciative towards change if they have to change years old habits. So, contrary to elderly, young people have a high level of mobilization, flexibility and are relatively easy adaptable to change.
Hypothesis 2: Local environmental policies introduced by a Municipality are explained by higher percentage of young people.
But, age composition theory has a side note. The fact that sustainable development relates to solidarity between generations, which is mentioned in the report “Our Common Future” issued in 1987 by the UN commission Brundtland. Elderly are more aware of what they do to future generation and what they leave behind for them. Younger people tend to care less about future generation and look more at the benefits than they enjoy from their behaviour (Boelhouwer and Verbeek, 2011; Jones and De Meyere, 2009; WCED, 1987).
Socio-economic status
The society is segmented by different parameters, for example: income, education or occupational prestige. People with high average incomes can meet their basic material needs
and can therefore focus on another post material values of life. An example of post material value is concern for the environment. The shift in focusing on post material values is predicted to lead to changes in attitudes, actions and social structure (Inglehard, 1977). Environmental quality, drive to tackle climate challenge and realization of energy transition is something, which can only be achieved once the basic needs such as food, shelter and economic security are met (Maslow, 1970). People with relatively low incomes are experiencing poor physical conditions and therefore less aware of social and environmental problems compared to people with high incomes (Liere and Dunlap, 1980). In other words, support for energy transition and local pro-environmental policies are luxurious entities, which are often supported by people from the upper class.
Hypothesis 3: Local environmental policies introduced by a Municipality are explained by in the average income level in the Municipality.
Residential status
According to Tremblay and Dunlap (1978), people who are living in urban areas are more worried about environment and climate compared to people who are living in rural areas. There are two possible reasons for this, which have been outlined by Tremblay and Dunlap. First, inhabitants of urban areas should be more concerned about environment and climate threats, because urban areas are often experiencing higher level of pollution than other areas. Poor environmental conditions (e.g. high level of pollution) can cause physical health issues, which can cause more environmental and climate awareness. Second, since rural occupations such as farming, horticulture and logging are typically based on the exploitation and consumption of natural resources, they might encourage an exploitative attitude towards natural resources (Hendee, 1969: 337). Rural areas are often driven by agriculture and people who are living in these areas are strongly dependent on use of natural resources and therefore, it is assumed that people are less concerned about environmental protection comparing to urban inhabitants (Tremblay and Dunlap, 1978; Van Liere and Dunlap; 1980; Harry et al., 1969; Hendee, 1969).
Hypothesis 4: Local environmental policies introduced by a Municipality are explained by differences in residential status.
Summarized, Municipalities differ from each other based on their features as political constellation (Milfront, et al., 2012) and Municipality characteristics i.e. socio-economic class (Maslow, 1970), age composition (Malkis and Grasmick, 1977) and residential status (Tremblay and Dunkap (1978). Differences in characteristics may cause the fact that Municipalities do not apply the same environmental policy in each Municipality. There is a difference in terms of their energy transition policies, more specifically, in how intensively they promote, initiate, develop or use various policy instruments (legal, economical and communicative) to encourage energy transition. An important point to address is that the demographic characteristics also probably affect who the people will vote for, which makes the independent variables not independent from each other.
3. Research Design
The design of this thesis is descriptive and explanatory. This thesis explores the distribution of policies and instruments across Dutch Municipalities for addressing the energy transition. The explanatory part of the research examines the effects of the Municipality’s political constellation and demographic composition on local environmental policies and instruments.
3.1 Dependent variable
The operationalization of the dependent variable ‘local environmental policy and instruments’ is borrowed from the Climate Monitor. The Climate Monitor is an initiative of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and presents data for monitoring of climate policy. The Climate Monitor includes data on local environmental policy and instruments. The questions in the survey (also called Corporation of Dutch Municipality Survey Renewable Energy) questions if Municipalities have adopted a certain instrument in order to realize the energy transition. The questions from the survey are divided (by the Monitor) in three policy instruments: legal (table 2), economical (table 3) and communicative (table 4) policies. Every question in the survey is answered by Municipalities with “we do”, “we do not” or “we are going to do”. There are some Municipalities that did not fill out the survey. In total, 94 Municipalities did not answer the survey for an unknown reason. These Municipalities are not taken into account in further quantitative analyses. This brings the N to 294 Municipalities.
The answers to the survey questions are recoded and operationalized to numerical data, which allows the researcher to compare the scores of Municipalities with each other. The survey outcome is recoded to a possible answer of “we do” or “we are going to do” (1) and “we do not” (0) giving a possible maximum score of 26 per Municipality and a minimum score of zero. In the following tables all questions are segmented in legal, economical and communicative policy options.
Table 2. Legal environmental policy instruments (12)
1) Local policy plans for sustainable heat services as alternative for fossil gas. 2) Renewable energy is an integral part of the local water management policy. 3) Renewable energy is an integral part of the local infrastructure policy. 4) Renewable energy is an integral part of the local green policy and vision.
5) Renewable energy is an integral part of the local structure- and environment policy.
6) Renewable energy is an integral part of local soil policy.
7) The estimated capacity of renewable energy is evaluated annually.
8) Measurable targets are set for share of energy consumption from renewable energy sources.
10) The streamlining of the licensing process for renewable energy initiatives has been maximized.
11) Obstacles to renewable energy generation are addressed promptly.
12) Space has been reserved for renewable energy generation in development plans. Source: Netwerk Lokaal Klimaatbeleid, 2017.
Table 3. Economical environmental policy instruments (6)
1) There is a subsidy scheme to promote local private investment in renewable energy generation.
2) Facilitate the possibility of closing a (sustainability) loan for renewable energy
generation.
3) There is a fund available for local / regional renewable energy generation. 4) The Municipality is guarantor for local renewable energy generation.
5) Possible discounts on administrative charges through efficient licensing method
for renewable energy generation.
6) Actively stimulate participation of citizens and institutions in local renewable energy generation.
Source: Netwerk Lokaal Klimaatbeleid, 2017.
Table 4. Communicative environmental policy instruments (8)
1) Local inspiring examples of renewable energy production are discussed. 2) Development of local renewable energy generation is communicated. 3) Facilitating the connection between supply and demand for renewable energy
generation.
4) The importance of local energy generation is included in civilian surveys. 5) Stimulating and facilitating residents in renewable energy production. 6) Local support on rural or regional campaigns / actions regarding renewable
energy generation.
7) Accessible information provision on renewable energy generation. 8) Creating support for renewable energy plans by local initiative participants
(companies, cooperatives).
Source: Netwerk Lokaal Klimaatbeleid, 2017.
Summarized, the dependent variable is an environmental policy score given to Dutch Municipalities. The score varies from 0 to 26. The more environmental policies a Municipality introduce the higher the environmental policy score and the other way around less environmental policies will translate to a lower score. The environmental policy score consist of three umbrella policy instruments, which are legal-, economic- and communicative policy instruments.
3.2 Independent variables
The independent variables in this research are political constellation (environmental friendliness) and demographic compositions of Municipality, which are age composition (elderly dependency ratio), socio-economic status (average income) and residential status (Table 5).
Political parties are decision makers when it comes to local environmental policies. By analysing the environmental friendliness of dominant party in the Council, it can be determined whether it matters what views with respect to environment the dominant party has in the Municipality. For examining environmental friendliness of a dominant party answer is needed on the question, “which political party is dominant?” According to the Data visualisation Council Election 2014, 226 Municipality Councils are represented by a dominant local political party in the Council and 161 Municipalities are represented by a dominant national political. After this division, climate labels are used to point environmental friendliness, which are only relevant for national political parties. Because of limited time, scope and data for conducting research also on local political parties the focus of this research is only on Municipalities where national political parties are dominant in the Council. The Climate Label is an outcome of analyses of 108 submitted motions by political parties in the Second Chamber regarding climate policies from 2012 till 2016. In this Climate Label all political parties, which are represented in the Second Chamber (Dutch House of Representatives) are ranked from A that stands for “far reaching solution” to E that stands for deny issues with respect to climate change (Klimaattabel Politiek, 2016). Political parties, which are not promoting the energy transition, environmental policies and simply deny the climate challenge, are labelled with E. On the other hand, political parties, which support energy transition, green energy initiative and simply want to tackle the climate challenge are more likely to get a label A. To sum, environmental friendliness of a Municipality is determent by the dominant party, which is measured by a tool named climate label. Figure 5, presents the rating, description of all labels related to the political parties.
Source: Klimaat Label Politiek, 2012.
Elderly dependency ratio
Elderly dependency ratio are the second independent, which is conceptualized by looking at percentage older than 65 years (CBS Bevolking, 2017). Only people that are officially registered in the population register of a Municipality are included in this measurement. Generation is defined as group of individuals born in the same time period. CBS presents the data of elderly dependency ratio per Municipality. The elderly dependency ratio is the ratio between the number of people aged 65 or older and the number of people from 20 to 65 years old, expressed as a percentage. For this research the CBS data is recoded and divided in two groups. First group is the 20 to 65 years, which is considered as “young” and second group, people over 65 years old, which is considered as “old”. As the theory explains younger people tend to be more open for environment policies, because younger people will support climate change reforms and accept environment initiatives and political ideologies eagerly compared to elderly. An example, an elderly dependency ratio of 45.7 % in the Municipality of Aa en Hunze means that 45.7 % of total population in the city is above 65 years old.
Average income
The socio-economic status of households affects the environmental attitudes. Income level of family is an important factor forming socioeconomic status of the households. Income level is the third independent variable, which is conceptualized by looking at average income levels
(per year) of households in a Municipality (CBS Regionale Inkomensverschillen, 2014). Basic necessities of life as food, clothes, shelter, heating and basic household items have an relative higher priority for households with lower average income levels, which gives a low priority to environmental issues.
Residential status
Residential status of a Municipality is the fourth independent variable and is conceptualized by classification of Municipalities in rural and urban. The Organization for Economics Co-operation and Development (hereinafter: OECD) makes a distinction between rural and urban areas on basis of the number of inhabitants per square kilometer. According to OECD, “a Municipality is classified as rural if it accommodates less than 150 residents per square kilometer” (Terluin, et al., 2005). The data on the total number of residents and population density (number of people living per square kilometer) is gathered from CBS database (CBS Bevolking, 2017).
Table 5. Variable summary
Variable Source Description
Environmental policy score
Netwerk Lokaal Klimaatbeleid, 2017.
Environmental policy scores given to Municipality according to its developed environmental policies.
Environmental
friendliness dominant party
Klimaat Label Politiek, 2012.
Environemental friendliness of dominant party labelled from A (high) to E (low).
Elderly dependency ratio
CBS Bevolking, 2017. The elderly dependency ratio is the ratio between the number of people aged 65 or older.
Average income CBS Regionale
Inkomensverschillen, 2014.
Average income per year per household.
Residential status CBS Bevolking, 2017 and Terluin, et al., 2005.
Distinction between rural and urban areas on basis of the number of inhabitants per square kilometer.
3.3 Data collection
Data is collected from existing registers and surveys. Central Bureau of Statistics is a source for elderly dependency ratio, average income per household and residential status of a Municipality. A key data source for environmental policy score is the Network Local Climate policy, which is a closed network of civil servants from all government areas (ministries, provinces, Municipalities and other semi-government institutions) and other stakeholders (e.g. students, professors and employees from private sector), which allows members to share experience and ask questions regarding energy and climate policy. The Network Local Climate Policy gives access to the Climate Monitor, which is a government-monitoring portal that presents data on regional climate and environmental policy (Netwerk Lokaal Klimaatbeleid, 2017). The relevant primary existing data are evaluated in relation to the hypotheses of the research and where needed the data is recorded and recoded to do statistical analyses.
4. Analysis
In this chapter the results are analysed in order to answer the research question ‘What explains the difference between Municipalities’ vis-à-vis energy transition?’ The first part of the analysis is focused on descriptive analysis of Municipalities and statistical correlation between policies. In this part, the distribution of environmental policy scores and
Municipality characteristics are presented. The second part of the analysis will focus on testing the hypothesis by doing a regression analyses.
4.1. Descriptive analysis of the Municipalities’ environmental policies Environmental policy scores (distribution and structure)
The Dutch central government encourages all Municipalities to develop environmental policies in order to realize the energy transition in their own Municipality. In order to realize this, the central government has given sufficient space to Municipalities where they are allowed to develop efficient and effective local environmental climate strategy. Different policies are developed to encourage sustainable energy usage and production and create awareness in Municipalities.
The environmental policy score gives an indication to what extent Municipalities implement environmental policies in order to realize energy transition. Municipalities differ in their environmental policies compared to each other, as Municipalities have their own composition of the three instruments (legal, communicative and economical). The environmental policy score gives all Municipalities a score based on legal, economical and communicative instruments regarding environmental policies. The environmental policy score has a range from 0-26 points. Municipalities that introduce less environmental policies have a lower score compared to Municipalities that have more environmental policies, which gives them a higher score. Figure 6 gives an overall impression of the distribution of total environmental policy score for all Dutch Municipalities. The figure shows that the highest total environmental policy score, 19 and above, are found in the central part of the country. The lowest score, 6 and below, are found in the Municipalities in the North-eastern side of the country and in the region of Rotterdam.
