IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v178y2023ics0301421523001829.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sowing the seeds of change: Policy feedback and ratcheting up in South African energy policy

Author

Listed:
  • Schmid, Nicolas
  • Lumsden, Christina

Abstract

More ambitious and stringent policy intervention is required to accelerate the transition to renewable energy technologies. The ratcheting-up of policy ambition hinges on the political feasibility of policy change. Positive policy feedback can, in theory, enhance the political feasibility of ratcheting-up by creating pro-change constituencies and policy learning. To analyze the empirical mechanisms through which policy feedback operates, in this study, we analyze two energy policy instruments in South Africa. We examine how the Renewable Energy Independent Power Procurement Program (REIPPP), a renewable energy auction program for niche support, affected the re-design of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), a central energy planning instrument. We use a qualitative case study approach, drawing on a large dataset of policy documents, public consultation responses and expert interviews. We show that REIPPP, through mechanisms of largely positive interpretive and resource feedback, has increased the political feasibility of more ambitious, pro-renewable energy planning in IRP. Our case thus demonstrates positive political feedback from the market creation to the central planning policy instrument. The findings suggest that the temporal sequencing of (re-designing) policy instruments can, under certain conditions, enable dynamic ratcheting up of energy policy mixes and thus sow the seeds for major policy change.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmid, Nicolas & Lumsden, Christina, 2023. "Sowing the seeds of change: Policy feedback and ratcheting up in South African energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:178:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523001829
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523001829
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113597?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xinru & Long, Ruyin & Sun, Qingqing & Chen, Hong & Jiang, Shiyan & Wang, Yujie & Li, Qianwen & Yang, Shuhan, 2024. "Spatial spillover effects and driving mechanisms of carbon emission reduction in new energy demonstration cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    2. Wiese, Melanie & van der Westhuizen, Liezl-MariƩ, 2024. "Impact of planned power outages (load shedding) on consumers in developing countries: Evidence from South Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).

    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:eee:enepol:v:178:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523001829. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.