Community-Oriented Energy Efficiency Policies in the European Union

Mgr. Aryuna Shoynzhonova

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The unsatisfactory rate of development of the EU’s climate change mitigation policies, both on national and international levels, has been found to be locked in the inability of regulators to push forward the energy efficiency agenda in residential sector. The built environment, meanwhile, appears to contain the greatest potential for energy savings, accounting for over 30% of CO2 emissions in the region. To unlock this potential, however, regulators need to look beyond conventional top-down policy implementation. The extremely low adoption rates of RES and energy- and cost-efficient technologies have prompted policy makers to reconsider the ways policy measures are introduced to the market. Borrowing from the structuralist perspective of Agency and Capacity as well as the grassroot theories legislators are actively exploring the ways to engage a variety of sub-national actors to help realize the objectives of the energy efficiency agenda. This study is concerned with the concept of the “middle-out” approach to policy implementation in the realm of energy efficiency, that incorporates ideas of local governance through special agents of choice and community stakeholder participation.

Keywords

energy efficiency, barriers, middle-out, community, local, governance, sustainability, building sector, residential sector

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 29. 5. 2017

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 21. 6. 2017
• Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Osička, Ph.D.
• Reader: Mgr. Filip Černoch, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
International Territorial Studies / Energy Security Studies (Eng.)