IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/enp/wpaper/eprg1934.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring public support for climate action and renewables in resource-rich economies: The case of Scotland

Author

Listed:
  • Rosemary Ostfeld
  • David M Reiner

    (EPRG, CJBS, University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Scotland offers a case study of a country with significant fossil energy resources that has recently moved to rapidly decarbonize its economy and deploy renewable energy sources. We review the key policies that have facilitated a 47% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels and almost 75% of Scottish electricity being produced from renewable energy. Public views on climate policy, renewable energy, and low-carbon technologies are explored using focus groups we conducted in Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Edinburgh and citizens’ juries held in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The deliberative processes reveal strong public support for continued diversification of Scotland’s energy portfolio to include more renewable energy sources, particularly at the local level. We also found support for a greater role for state-led involvement in the energy sector. Pro-renewables sentiments and skepticism of industry pervade even in Aberdeen, the main UK hub for oil and gas exploration, alongside support for further exploration of low-carbon technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). Although Peterhead stood to benefit from a major CCS project, there was little awareness of the proposed project among residents nor its cancellation. Finally, we argue deliberative processes can help both policy-makers and developers gauge where they can (and cannot) expect support.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Rosemary Ostfeld & David M Reiner, 2019. "Exploring public support for climate action and renewables in resource-rich economies: The case of Scotland," Working Papers EPRG1934, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
  • Handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg1934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/eprg-wp1934.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Armstrong & Monique Ebell, 2014. "Assets and liabilities and Scottish independence," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(2), pages 297-309.
    2. Bowen, Frances, 2011. "Carbon capture and storage as a corporate technology strategy challenge," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2256-2264, May.
    3. Angus Armstrong & Monique Ebell, 2014. "Assets and liabilities and Scottish independence," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 297-309.
    4. Alex Bowen & James Rydge, 2011. "Climate-Change Policy in the United Kingdom," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 886, OECD Publishing.
    5. Howell, Rhys & Shackley, Simon & Mabon, Leslie & Ashworth, Peta & Jeanneret, Talia, 2014. "Engaging the public with low-carbon energy technologies: Results from a Scottish large group process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 496-506.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ostfeld, Rosemary & Reiner, David M., 2020. "Public views of Scotland's path to decarbonization: Evidence from citizens' juries and focus groups," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Mohammad Arzaghi & Andrew Balthrop, 2018. "No taxation, no representation: An investigation of the relationship between natural resources and fiscal decentralization," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(7), pages 1234-1255, November.
    3. Abu-Bakar, Siti Hawa & Muhammad-Sukki, Firdaus & Ramirez-Iniguez, Roberto & Mallick, Tapas Kumar & McLennan, Campbell & Munir, Abu Bakar & Mohd Yasin, Siti Hajar & Abdul Rahim, Ruzairi, 2013. "Is Renewable Heat Incentive the future?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 365-378.
    4. Van Dael, Miet & Lizin, Sebastien & Swinnen, Gilbert & Van Passel, Steven, 2017. "Young people’s acceptance of bioenergy and the influence of attitude strength on information provision," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 417-430.
    5. McMeekin, Andrew & Geels, Frank W. & Hodson, Mike, 2019. "Mapping the winds of whole system reconfiguration: Analysing low-carbon transformations across production, distribution and consumption in the UK electricity system (1990–2016)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1216-1231.
    6. Davies, Lincoln L. & Uchitel, Kirsten & Ruple, John, 2013. "Understanding barriers to commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration in the United States: An empirical assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 745-761.
    7. van Os, Herman W.A. & Herber, Rien & Scholtens, Bert, 2014. "Not Under Our Back Yards? A case study of social acceptance of the Northern Netherlands CCS initiative," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 923-942.
    8. Xi Liang & Hengwei Liu & David Reiner, 2014. "Strategies for Financing Large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage Power Plants in China," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1430, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Moura, Maria Cecilia P. & Branco, David A. Castelo & Peters, Glen P. & Szklo, Alexandre Salem & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2013. "How the choice of multi-gas equivalency metrics affects mitigation options: The case of CO2 capture in a Brazilian coal-fired power plant," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1357-1366.
    10. Tao, Hu & Zhuang, Shan & Xue, Rui & Cao, Wei & Tian, Jinfang & Shan, Yuli, 2022. "Environmental Finance: An Interdisciplinary Review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    11. Marshall, Jonathan Paul, 2016. "Disordering fantasies of coal and technology: Carbon capture and storage in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 288-298.
    12. Ming, Zeng & Shaojie, Ouyang & Yingjie, Zhang & Hui, Shi, 2014. "CCS technology development in China: Status, problems and countermeasures—Based on SWOT analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 604-616.
    13. Zhao, Tian & Liu, Zhixin, 2019. "A novel analysis of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology adoption: An evolutionary game model between stakeholders," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Zhao, Xin-Xin & Zheng, Mingbo & Fu, Qiang, 2022. "How natural disasters affect energy innovation? The perspective of environmental sustainability," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Tobias Hahn & Jonatan Pinkse, 2014. "Private environmental governance through cross-sector partnerships: Tensions between competition and effectiveness," Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management hal-00961234, HAL.
    16. Peter Viebahn & Emile J. L. Chappin, 2018. "Scrutinising the Gap between the Expected and Actual Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage—A Bibliometric Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-45, September.
    17. Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi & Mohammad Dehghani Madvar & Milad Sadeghzadeh & Mohammad Hossein Rezaei & Manuel Herrera & Shahaboddin Shamshirband, 2019. "Current Status Investigation and Predicting Carbon Dioxide Emission in Latin American Countries by Connectionist Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.
    18. Grigoris Giannarakis & Eleni Zafeiriou & Nikolaos Sariannidis, 2017. "The Impact of Carbon Performance on Climate Change Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1078-1094, December.
    19. Bobo Zheng & Jiuping Xu, 2014. "Carbon Capture and Storage Development Trends from a Techno-Paradigm Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-30, August.
    20. Brown, Marilyn A. & Tudawe, Ranal & Steimer, Hamilton, 2022. "Carbon drawdown potential of utility-scale solar in the United States: Evidence from the state of Georgia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Citizens' jury; focus groups; energy transition; climate policy; renewable energy; low-carbon technologies; Scotland; carbon capture and storage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P18 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Energy; Environment
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg1934. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jicamuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.