Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: National energy and climate plans (NECPs) are a cornerstone of European Union (EU) climate policy. As ‘hard’ soft governance instruments, NECPs allow comparison of member state policies and monitoring of whether they reach EU aims. My argument is that NECPs can be analysed as regulatory talk, with both member states and the Commission using reputational strategies—performative, technical, procedural and moral—to lend authority to their policy descriptions and projections. I show that the technical rhetoric of draft NECPs varies according to domestic capacities. Commission comments are uniform, emphasising performance. Member states do not adapt their final NECPs to the regulatory talk of the Commission. They use the same reputational mix as in the draft NECPs. In sum, the NECPs portray an output‐oriented legitimation strategy, emphasising performance and technical proficiency. The actor bases of the found national variation of regulatory talk and its effects are questions for further research.
DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13734
Author: Simon Fink
Institution: University of Göttingen
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,170
OpenAlex ID: W4409288977