My project is titled Path Dependency and the Politics of Renewable Energy in Sub-National Jurisdictions. This research is one of 15 work packages organized under the MISTRAL European Training Network.

Contemporary decision-making processes regarding energy policy, including the development of renewable energy systems, are conditioned by their historical contexts. Policy decisions are not made in a vacuum; they are influenced by various factors including institutional frameworks, political interests, economic trends, and infrastructural legacies.

Path dependency offers a useful conceptual framework for understanding the ways in which these contextual elements influence the contemporary struggles for decarbonisation in the energy system. Path dependency is a phenomenon which results from the historical co-evolution of social, technical, political, and institutional systems, and can result in the entrenchment of certain systems at the expense of novel approaches.

Through my research, I seek to investigate the influence of the historical contexts of energy systems on efforts to decarbonise and reform existing practices along a sustainable trajectory. Through case studies from the United Kingdom and Canada, the evolution of low carbon energy systems will be examined.

For a complete description of the research, please visit the MISTRAL website.

Source: Green Tech Media