Local Authorities and Sustainable Energy Innovations: Decentralisation, Institutional Capacity and Civic Participation

英国的能源和政治格局都在发生变化，但到目前为止，还没有分析考虑到这些走向更大权力下放的运动是如何相互关联的。事实上，地方当局越来越多地参与扶持和提供可持续能源方案，同时，许多地方当局正在申请和争取权力下放协议。一些学者和政策分析师认为，分散能源对于通过更大的公民参与确保公众接受可持续能源转型至关重要，而其他人则指出地方在提供更好的服务方面的力量。该研究项目将揭示这两个权力下放运动如何在实践中相互作用的细节，通过探索和绘制五个地方当局的可持续能源计划，并严格审查他们与中央政府的关系。 这项研究是及时和创新的。这是及时的，因为根据气候变化委员会（CCC），其工作是监测英国在气候减缓方面的进展，英国有可能错过其第四次碳预算，因为中央政府对太阳能和风能发电的支持最近也被削减（能源频谱2015）。然而，与此同时，地方当局已成为可持续能源方面的一个创新领域，部分原因是创建了按照非传统商业模式运作的新能源公司，部分原因是提供注重负担能力的供应服务。该项目的创新之处在于，它结合了社会技术转型，政治学和人文地理学的概念见解，揭示了地方当局在可持续转型中的新兴作用，同时也探索了政治权力下放背景下的这些变化。该项目的设计得到了能源管理局、可持续能源中心和两名地方政府人员的投入。它旨在定期与地方当局一级的从业人员和利益攸关方进行接触，以便就这一快速变化的领域进行持续的知识交流和共同制作。该项目还旨在使地方当局有机会通过有针对性的从业人员讲习班相互接触。在项目接近尾声时，将与能源和气候变化办公室、能源和气候变化部以及地方政府协会等地方当局网络分享关于地方当局和中央政府在实践中如何合作的调查结果，特别是关于改进的制约因素和机会的调查结果。从这个研究项目的结果应该是相关的，不仅在英国的地方政府和地方能源工作的学者，而且对规模和公民参与可持续能源转型的问题感兴趣的学者。通过承担和完成这个项目，PI将获得一个宝贵的机会来发展和进一步提高她的研究技能，创建新的网络，进行开创性的研究，并继续她的轨迹，成为气候和能源治理领域的世界领导者。

Both energy and political landscapes are changing in the UK, but so far no analysis has considered how these movements towards greater decentralisation relate to one another. Indeed, local authorities are becoming increasingly involved in enabling and providing sustainable energy programmes whilst, at the same time, many are applying for and securing devolution deals. Some scholars and policy analysts have argued that decentralising energy will be vital in securing popular buy-in to sustainable energy transitions through greater civic participation whilst others are point towards the power of the local in delivering better-attuned services. This research project will reveal the details of how these two decentralisation movements interact with one another in practice by exploring and mapping five local authority sustainable energy programmes and critically examining their relationships with central government. This research is timely and innovative. It is timely because according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), whose job it is to monitor the UK's progress on climate mitigation, the UK is at risk of missing its Fourth Carbon Budget and because central government support for solar and wind generation has also recently been cut (Energy Spectrum 2015). At the same time, however, local authorities have been emerging as one area of innovation with regard to sustainable energy, partly by creating new energy companies that operate according to non-traditional business models and partly by offering supply services focused on affordability. The project is innovative in that it combines conceptual insights from socio-technical transitions, political science and human geography to reveal the emerging role of local authorities in sustainable transitions whilst also exploring these changes within the context of political decentralisation. This project has been designed with input from Ofgem, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and two local government personnel. It aims to engage on a regular basis with practitioners and stakeholders at the local authority level with the intention of on-going knowledge exchange and co-production about this fast changing area. The project is also designed so that local authorities will have the opportunity to engage with one-another through a targeted, practitioners' workshop. Towards the end of the project findings about how local authorities and central government work together in practice, in particular with regard constraints and opportunities for improvement, will be shared with Ofgem, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and local authority networks such as the Local Government Association. The findings from this research project should be relevant not only to academics working on local government and local energy in the UK, but also to scholars interested in questions of scale and of civic participation in sustainable energy transitions. By undertaking and completing this project the PI will be given a valuable opportunity to develop and further improve her research skills, create new networks, produce groundbreaking research and to continue on her trajectory to becoming a world leader in the field of climate and energy governance.