Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EMPOCI (Governing sustainable energy-mobility transitions: multi-level policy mixes, transformative capacities and low-carbon innovations)
Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-11-30
What is the problem / issue being addressed?
EMPOCI investigates how actors in government, business, research, and civil society are accelerating the low-carbon transition in energy and mobility systems at a regional and national level.
Why is it important for society?
Tackling the climate emergency means rapidly decarbonising our production and consumption systems, particularly in the increasingly interconnected energy and mobility systems. How governments are navigating competing climate policy interests and industrial policy concerns, however, while accelerating sustainability transitions, remains unclear. Addressing this knowledge frontier calls for a re-examination of effective policy mixes for delivering rapid decarbonization and green competitiveness, alongside careful consideration of the politics and policies of green transition processes. The overarching research question motivating the EMPOCI project therefore is: How can the global low-carbon transition in the increasingly interconnected energy and mobility systems be accelerated on a regional and national level?
What are the overall objectives?
The EMPOCI project has three overall objectives:
1. To provide a new understanding of the global interplay between multi-level policy mixes and low-carbon innovations in socio-technical transitions;
2. To develop and test new methodological tools enabling both deep and broad insights into the drivers of and barriers to transition processes towards sustainability;
3. To co-design practical strategies for accelerating energy-mobility transitions, to thus support the implementation of Paris Agreement.
The EMPOCI team is investigating the innovation-led decarbonisation of these increasingly interconnected systems by performing a multi-method analysis for two European countries which are critical climate policy leaders (Germany and the UK) and two countries outside of Europe which are key players for these transition processes (USA and China).
EMPOCI investigates how actors in government, business, research, and civil society are accelerating the low-carbon transition in energy and mobility systems at a regional and national level.
Why is it important for society?
Tackling the climate emergency means rapidly decarbonising our production and consumption systems, particularly in the increasingly interconnected energy and mobility systems. How governments are navigating competing climate policy interests and industrial policy concerns, however, while accelerating sustainability transitions, remains unclear. Addressing this knowledge frontier calls for a re-examination of effective policy mixes for delivering rapid decarbonization and green competitiveness, alongside careful consideration of the politics and policies of green transition processes. The overarching research question motivating the EMPOCI project therefore is: How can the global low-carbon transition in the increasingly interconnected energy and mobility systems be accelerated on a regional and national level?
What are the overall objectives?
The EMPOCI project has three overall objectives:
1. To provide a new understanding of the global interplay between multi-level policy mixes and low-carbon innovations in socio-technical transitions;
2. To develop and test new methodological tools enabling both deep and broad insights into the drivers of and barriers to transition processes towards sustainability;
3. To co-design practical strategies for accelerating energy-mobility transitions, to thus support the implementation of Paris Agreement.
The EMPOCI team is investigating the innovation-led decarbonisation of these increasingly interconnected systems by performing a multi-method analysis for two European countries which are critical climate policy leaders (Germany and the UK) and two countries outside of Europe which are key players for these transition processes (USA and China).
To achieve its objectives, EMPOCI investigates the sustainable energy-mobility transitions in Germany, the UK, the USA, and China. Its main research team is comprised of 1 principal investigator, 2 postdoctoral fellows, and 2 PhD students.
The team started with a systematic review of the academic literature on the interplay of policy mixes and innovation in multi-system transition processes. Among others, the results have been written up in several book chapters (e.g. on policy mixes, transformative capacity, policies and policy-mixes for accelerating transitions). The team also conducted an in-depth review of the empirical academic and grey literature on the electrification of transport in the four countries of interests, which has formed the basis of the subsequent empirical work (e.g. for mapping governing entities or explaining net-zero technology strategy trajectories).
Based on extensive fieldwork, the country leads for Germany, the US, the UK and China have analysed and started to publish in-depth studies on ongoing transition processes in the four countries. Initial empirical outputs focus on the mapping of system actors associated with policy making processes (for the UK) and outputs (for China) in the context of transformative energy-mobility policy mixes, as well as the interplay between experimentation, institutional and policy mix change (for mobility-as-a-service). In addition, in a comparative analysis we contrast the market configuration around charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the US (California) and Germany. We also compare the current acceleration challenges perceived by system actors in Germany and the US regarding widespread transport electrification. Further empirical work investigates the strategic reorientation of truck manufacturers towards radical net-zero technologies, only to mention a few examples. These analyses are being used to prepare the upcoming transition surveys among four actor groups.
Methodologically, the EMPOCI team has concentrated on developing a novel quantitative approach for systematically mapping actors and their interactions in transitions, thereby enabling new insights into emerging multi-system transitions. This method is based on Named Entity Recognition and has been trialled with data from the UK. The team is also pushing forward the development of novel survey measurement instruments for actors involved in accelerating net-zero transitions, taking the example of the electrification of transport.
The EMPOCI team has presented its findings at various transition and policy-oriented conferences, workshops, and seminars, and has lead the organisation of conference tracks on accelerating net-zero transitions, for example, thereby contributing to cutting edge academic exchanges pushing the knowledge frontier on acceleration.
The project outputs are open access and can be found on EMPOCI’s website, on the university repository and/or in its EMPOCI community on the Zenodo platform.
The team started with a systematic review of the academic literature on the interplay of policy mixes and innovation in multi-system transition processes. Among others, the results have been written up in several book chapters (e.g. on policy mixes, transformative capacity, policies and policy-mixes for accelerating transitions). The team also conducted an in-depth review of the empirical academic and grey literature on the electrification of transport in the four countries of interests, which has formed the basis of the subsequent empirical work (e.g. for mapping governing entities or explaining net-zero technology strategy trajectories).
Based on extensive fieldwork, the country leads for Germany, the US, the UK and China have analysed and started to publish in-depth studies on ongoing transition processes in the four countries. Initial empirical outputs focus on the mapping of system actors associated with policy making processes (for the UK) and outputs (for China) in the context of transformative energy-mobility policy mixes, as well as the interplay between experimentation, institutional and policy mix change (for mobility-as-a-service). In addition, in a comparative analysis we contrast the market configuration around charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the US (California) and Germany. We also compare the current acceleration challenges perceived by system actors in Germany and the US regarding widespread transport electrification. Further empirical work investigates the strategic reorientation of truck manufacturers towards radical net-zero technologies, only to mention a few examples. These analyses are being used to prepare the upcoming transition surveys among four actor groups.
Methodologically, the EMPOCI team has concentrated on developing a novel quantitative approach for systematically mapping actors and their interactions in transitions, thereby enabling new insights into emerging multi-system transitions. This method is based on Named Entity Recognition and has been trialled with data from the UK. The team is also pushing forward the development of novel survey measurement instruments for actors involved in accelerating net-zero transitions, taking the example of the electrification of transport.
The EMPOCI team has presented its findings at various transition and policy-oriented conferences, workshops, and seminars, and has lead the organisation of conference tracks on accelerating net-zero transitions, for example, thereby contributing to cutting edge academic exchanges pushing the knowledge frontier on acceleration.
The project outputs are open access and can be found on EMPOCI’s website, on the university repository and/or in its EMPOCI community on the Zenodo platform.
The EMPOCI project is innovative in at least five ways, and is expected to achieve the following results by the end of the project:
1. It combines innovation studies with policy studies in an interdisciplinary analytical framework, which paves the way for paying more nuanced attention to the interplay between policy mixes and innovation.
2. It assumes a multi-level policy mix perspective, which on the one hand differentiates between regional and national governance levels, and on the other hand distinguishes between climate policy and industrial policy.
3. It foregrounds the roles of actors and transformative capacities for low-carbon transition dynamics, and thereby generates novel insights on the agency and politics in sustainability transitions.
4. Its research design combines novel mixed methods approaches, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. case studies, surveys, big data, foresight).
5. Its empirical focus moves away from single-country, single-sector analyses and instead systematically compares and explains energy-mobility transition processes across frontrunner regions (two within and two outside of Europe), thereby accounting for different contexts and global interdependencies.
1. It combines innovation studies with policy studies in an interdisciplinary analytical framework, which paves the way for paying more nuanced attention to the interplay between policy mixes and innovation.
2. It assumes a multi-level policy mix perspective, which on the one hand differentiates between regional and national governance levels, and on the other hand distinguishes between climate policy and industrial policy.
3. It foregrounds the roles of actors and transformative capacities for low-carbon transition dynamics, and thereby generates novel insights on the agency and politics in sustainability transitions.
4. Its research design combines novel mixed methods approaches, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. case studies, surveys, big data, foresight).
5. Its empirical focus moves away from single-country, single-sector analyses and instead systematically compares and explains energy-mobility transition processes across frontrunner regions (two within and two outside of Europe), thereby accounting for different contexts and global interdependencies.