Energy policy-making in the European Union between past and present
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In this paper, we analyse how impact assessment reports from the European Commission inform energy policy-making in the European Union. Our methodological lens is the sensitivity auditing seven-point checklist for the scrutiny of modelling activities at the science-policy interface, which looks into the overall modelling framing process and application. The sensitivity-auditing checklist is applied to a recent impact assessment report from the European Commission aimed at informing the selection of greenhouse-gas emission targets for 2040 in the European Union. We criticise this impact assessment report for downplaying uncertainties and neglecting many dimensions of energy policy-making, such as the quality of green jobs to be offered, the identification of who is to bear the cost of the transition, and the material requirements entailed by the large-scale deployment of renewable energy capacity. We compare these findings with those of an IIASA assessment made in the 1980s, which was the subject of pointed criticism by sociologist of science and technology Brian Wynne in a 1984 paper. We highlight analogies between the two cases indicating that the lesson from that controversy was not learned, or that at a more fundamental level the purpose of these institutional analyses is not to trace a path to a sustainable energy future but to reinforce and confirm present policy agendas and visions.
Source: Energy Research & Social Science
Authors: Samuele Lo Piano, Andrea Saltelli
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4413635957