Implementing EU climate and energy policies in Poland: policy feedback and reform

Crisis, Climate Change and Comitology: Policy Dismantling Via the Backdoor?

“…However, since the late 2000s the EU has faced a conglomerate of crises (Falkner, ), most notably the economic and Eurozone crises (Gravey, ), the migration and refugee crisis (Byman and Speakman, ) and an ongoing legitimacy crisis, exemplified by the Brexit negotiations (Farstad et al ., ). This crisis period followed the EU's 2004 enlargement, which saw accession to the EU of states that were less well‐positioned than existing members to develop ambitious environmental policy and that sought, successfully in some cases, to reduce the ambition of environmental legislation (Skjærseth, ). The costs of environmental policy have become more politicized, as some member states have sought to block new legislation (Skjærseth, ; Skovgaard, ), and the economic crisis has been used to justify the pursuit of less ambitious, and crucially, less expensive policies (Burns et al ., ).…”

“…This crisis period followed the EU's 2004 enlargement, which saw accession to the EU of states that were less well‐positioned than existing members to develop ambitious environmental policy and that sought, successfully in some cases, to reduce the ambition of environmental legislation (Skjærseth, ). The costs of environmental policy have become more politicized, as some member states have sought to block new legislation (Skjærseth, ; Skovgaard, ), and the economic crisis has been used to justify the pursuit of less ambitious, and crucially, less expensive policies (Burns et al ., ). The combined effects of these factors appear to have cooled environmental policy ambition in the EU (Burns et al ., ; Kassim et al ., ; Skovgaard, ).…”

“…During the mid‐1990s and most of the 2000s, the EU enjoyed a relatively unchallenged reputation as a global leader on climate change policy (Kilian and Elgström, ; Parker and Karlsson, ). However, the onset of the financial crisis coincided with the EU's leadership faltering on the international stage (Bäckstrand and Elgström, ) and with a backlash against EU climate policy from poorer EU states that are still dependent on carbon‐intensive energy and industries (Skjærseth, ). Moreover, the EU has been beset by a ‘conglomerate of crises’ (Falkner, ) encompassing not only the 2007–08 global financial crisis (Burns and Tobin, ) but also rising euroscepticism, the Syrian refugee crisis and the annexation of Crimea.…”

Disaggregating the dependent variable in policy feedback research: an analysis of the EU Emissions Trading System

“…Ideally, an expanded focus on both positive and negative feedbacks should lead to a more in-depth discussion of which policy aspects are being strengthened or weakened by policy feedback. But the existing literature has largely chosen to adopt a highly blunt, i.e., aggregated, definition of policy, defined variously as an individual policy instrument (e.g., Jordan and Matt 2014), a policy mix (Skjaerseth 2018), a piece of legislation (Béland et al 2018), or a policy regime (Weaver 2010). However, some scholars have begun to explore how policy feedback can have distinct effects on the constituent elements of an overall policy.…”

“…In general terms, this literature has studied how public policies, once adopted, influence subsequent policy making through their effects on the resources and interpretations of policy actors. Empirically, it originally focused on social policy in the USA (Campbell 2003;Pierson 1994;Skocpol 1992), but has since expanded in geographical scope (e.g., to the European Union; Daugbjerg 2003;Jordan and Matt 2014) and has analyzed other policy areas such as climate change (Skjaerseth 2018; Jordan and Moore 1 3 2020), transport (Skogstad 2017), and prisons (Dagan and Teles 2015). In this context, the literature has focused on feedback effects on mass publics (e.g., Campbell 2012;Mettler and SoRelle 2014), and interest groups (e.g., Jordan and Matt 2014).…”