IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v187y2024ics0301421524000429.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Defueling the impasse: EU political discourse on e-fuels

Author

Listed:
  • Birel, T.
  • Breeman, G.E.
  • van Buitenen, A.
  • Vijver, M.G.

Abstract

As part of its ‘Fit for 55’ package, the European Commission proposed to ban internal combustion engines in new cars and vans from 2035 onwards. Although initially agreed upon by the Parliament and Council of Ministers, Germany rejected the law last-minute due to its exclusion of e-fuels, leading to a three-week long impasse until a compromise was found. This study aims to explain how this impasse could occur by analysing the political discourse on e-fuels. A qualitative, inductive framing analysis is applied to 77 communications published by 15 stakeholders at five key dates during the legislative procedure. This revealed the different usage of positional and argumentative frames among stakeholders, and the importance of adding the e-fuels recital 9a to the Council’s General Approach. Both a change of mood in the discourse and discrepancies in interpretations of the recital were identified in the stakeholder communications after the Council’s General Approach, signalling towards a potential impasse. Although recitals are commonly used in EU policy making to find compromises, the recital made negotiations more difficult in this case. Understanding how this impasse could occur so suddenly at the end of the procedure can aid in predicting and preventing similar conflicts in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Birel, T. & Breeman, G.E. & van Buitenen, A. & Vijver, M.G., 2024. "Defueling the impasse: EU political discourse on e-fuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:187:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524000429
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524000429
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114022?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rowlands, Ian H., 2005. "The European directive on renewable electricity: conflicts and compromises," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 965-974, May.
    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. Gustav Resch & Malte Gephart & Simone Steinhilber & Corinna Klessmann & Pablo del Rio & Mario Ragwitz, 2013. "Coordination or Harmonisation? Feasible Pathways for a European Res Strategy beyond 2020," Energy & Environment, , vol. 24(1-2), pages 147-169, February.
    2. Simon Wiederhold, 2012. "The Role of Public Procurement in Innovation: Theory and Empirical Evidence," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 43.
    3. Kitzing, Lena & Mitchell, Catherine & Morthorst, Poul Erik, 2012. "Renewable energy policies in Europe: Converging or diverging?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 192-201.
    4. Toonen, Hilde M. & Lindeboom, Han J., 2015. "Dark green electricity comes from the sea: Capitalizing on ecological merits of offshore wind power?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1023-1033.
    5. Madlener, Reinhard & Stagl, Sigrid, 2005. "Sustainability-guided promotion of renewable electricity generation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 147-167, April.
    6. Söderholm, Patrik, 2008. "Harmonization of renewable electricity feed-in laws: A comment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 946-953, March.
    7. Schenk, Niels J. & Moll, Henri C. & Potting, José & Benders, René M.J., 2007. "Wind energy, electricity, and hydrogen in the Netherlands," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1960-1971.
    8. Yanming Sun & Lin Zhang, 2019. "Full Separation or Full Integration? An Investigation of the Optimal Renewables Policy Employing Tradable Green Certificate Systems in Two Countries’ Electricity Markets," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Jørgen K. Knudsen, 2010. "Integration of Environmental Concerns in a Trans‐Atlantic Perspective: The Case of Renewable Electricity," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(2), pages 127-146, March.
    10. Munoz, Miquel & Oschmann, Volker & David Tabara, J., 2007. "Harmonization of renewable electricity feed-in laws in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 3104-3114, May.
    11. Verhaegen, Karolien & Meeus, Leonardo & Delvaux, Bram & Belmans, Ronnie, 2007. "Electricity produced from renewable energy sources--What target are we aiming for?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5576-5584, November.
    12. Nilsson, Måns & Nilsson, Lars J. & Ericsson, Karin, 2009. "The rise and fall of GO trading in European renewable energy policy: The role of advocacy and policy framing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4454-4462, November.
    13. Chen, Ting & Vandendriessche, Frederik, 2023. "Evolution of the EU legal framework for promoting RES-E: A market compatible paradigm shift?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. de Coninck, Heleen & Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G. & Ueno, Takahiro, 2008. "International technology-oriented agreements to address climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 335-356, January.
    15. Martin, Nigel & Rice, John, 2013. "The solar photovoltaic feed-in tariff scheme in New South Wales, Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 697-706.
    16. Faulin, Javier & Lera, Fernando & Pintor, Jesus M. & Garcia, Justo, 2006. "The outlook for renewable energy in Navarre: An economic profile," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(15), pages 2201-2216, October.

    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:187:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524000429. 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: 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.