Governing the transition to a biofuels economy in the US and EU: accommodating value conflicts, implementing uncertainty

Kay, A and Ackrill, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-1812, 2012. Governing the transition to a biofuels economy in the US and EU: accommodating value conflicts, implementing uncertainty. Policy and Society, 31 (4), pp. 295-306.

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Abstract

The scale of the ambition to decouple emissions growth from energy consumption runs counter to decades of debates and literatures on the limits of government. Transport biofuels are an early and influential case of the policy capacity challenge in the transition to low-carbon economies. The case stands analytically for the policymaker’s dilemma of maintaining long-term policy goals as credible commitments, despite the flexibility and adaptability in policy-making required to achieve them under high political, technological and market uncertainty. This paper compares US and EU biofuels policy processes in these terms. It reveals an intertemporal choice embedded in biofuels policies which tests the capacity to account for future benefits from a low carbon future in current policy processes; if the pathway to their achievement is uncertain and politically contested in the implementation phase, then future benefits may be heavily discounted, shortening policy-maker horizons and rendering the transition process politically vulnerable.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Policy and Society
Creators:	Kay, A. and Ackrill, R.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	2012
Volume:	31
Number:	4
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.polsoc.2012.10.001 DOI
Rights:	Copyright © 2012 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:56
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5144

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