Duth policies to manage the transition to sustainable energy

Description :

 Many countries are committed to sustainability but are struggling withhow to do this. Most countries opted for sustainability councils and thedevelopment of sustainability indicators. The Dutch governmentfollowed a different track. It believed that sustainability requires somefundamental changes in functional systems of for example energy,transport and agriculture. It conceptualised the quest towardssustainability as an issue of managing transitions in functional systems.In this paper we examine why the Dutch government became interestedin transitions. We will see that transition management was attractivebecause it allowed different ministries to pursue their own agenda but ina different way: with more attention to innovation and learning. We willlook at the model of transition management and the Dutch policies formanaging the energy transition. The model is believed to be aninteresting model of governance, employing an integrative and multi-scale framework for policy deliberation, choice of instruments, andactions by individuals, private and public organizations, helping societyto escape lock-in while avoiding new evolutionary traps.