Memorandum 76
Supplementary evidence from Professor
Gordon MacKerron, Economic and Social Research Council, following
the oral evidence session on 12 March 2008
I am submitting a brief extra note to amplify
my reply to the Committee's Question 282, (12 March 2008). This
asked what are the main challenges facing the social science research
community with respect to the further development of renewable
energy sources. The challenges outlined below run across all social
science approaches to the promotion of a radically lower carbon
society, and all apply to renewable generation.
1. The first, "bottom up" challenge
is better understanding of consumer and citizen behaviours in
the face of potentially radical technological change. We know
that changed economic signals (taxes and prices, including carbon
prices) do lead to changed consumer behaviour. However we also
know that the levels to which prices or taxes would have to rise
to achieve low carbon objectives are, without help from other
measures, politically implausible. This throws great weight on
attempts to discover how consumers may change their preferences
and behaviour towards more sustainable practices (including adoption
of renewable technology) for any given price and tax regime.[263]
This requires interdisciplinary work and particularly contributions
from sociology and social psychology as well as new approaches
from economics.
2. The second challenge, both "top
down" and "bottom up", derives from the observation
that "business as usual" within Government will not
be enough to achieve the emissions reductions to which Government
is committed. The challenge is then to develop better understanding
of the ways in which Government may act with greater urgency in
the promotion of renewable and other sustainable energy developments,
while acquiring and retaining sufficient political legitimacy
for the urgency to be translated into long-term and effective
action.[264]
This again requires interdisciplinarity with a particular role
for political science and sociology. In the renewables field,
it applies to understanding how the planning process, now being
revised, can achieve both legitimacy and speed.
3. The third challenge is to achieve better
analysis and evaluation of Government policy impacts, both before
and after implementation. We especially need to gain better understanding
of the interaction of different policy instruments (eg the Renewables
Obligation and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme) which are aimed
at essentially the same low carbon objectives.322[265]
Sometimes these instruments will be mutually reinforcing and sometimes
get in each other's way, and we need to understand these processes
better. This would help Government, both in moving further and
more urgently in areas of success, and in helping the process
of learning and policy adaptation when policies work less well—bearing
in mind the need to protect prior investments made under previous
policy regimes.
March 2008
263 For a recent review of literature, see Mari Martiskainen
Affecting Consumer Behaviour on Energy Demand [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/1-2-15.html] Back
264
A recent and radical analysios of the conditions for greater
urgency and legitimacy in climate change and energy policy is
C Mitchell The Political Economy of Sustainable Energy
Palgrave, 2007. Back
265
322 A good example of earlier work is S Sorrell (2003) Who
owns the carbon? Interactions between the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme and the UK Renewables Obligation and Energy Efficiency
Commitment Energy and Environment 14(5), 677-703. Back
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