Politics of low-carbon transitions: The European Emissions Trading System as a Trojan Horse for climate policy?

Many view carbon pricing as the single best policy approach to address climate change. Such optimism, however, tends to neglect the politics and struggles that surround climate policy and the necessity to accelerate the ongoing low-carbon energy transition. To unveil the multiple facets of political struggles around climate and energy policy, we analyze the responses of key actors to climate-energy consultations in 2015-16 surrounding the EU emissions trading system (ETS) and the EU renewable energy directive. Among other positions, we identify a prominent policy position that contends that climate policy should focus on the ETS given its purported efficiency. Some actors who share this position use the ETS like a Trojan Horse to fend off strict climate action as well as complementary renewable energy policies. Such political strategies do not just undermine carbon pricing but confront the energy transition at large. However, we also find energy industry incumbents that want a much stronger ETS and more effective climate policy. Therefore, it seems that the ‘Trojan Horse strategy’ may fail and the low-carbon transition might gain increasing support from a broad range of constituents. Even so, we argue that any singular climate policy approach risks political capture and that a broad range of policies will be necessary to accelerate the ongoing transition.