Dr Catherine Butler presented this paper at the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference (London, UK - August 2016), and at the 3rd Energy & Society conference (Leipzig, Germany - September 2016).

1. GOVERNING
TRANSITIONS
IN
ENERGY
DEMAND
Dr
Catherine
Butler
@drcbutler
c.butler@exeter.ac.uk
Collaborators:
Dr
Karen
Parkhill,
Dr
Karen
Bickerstaff,
Professor
Gordon
Walker

2. Project
background
• Analyses
of
governance
issues
relaDng
to
energy
demand
focus
on
‘energy’
policy
or
closely
related
areas
(e.g.
transport)
• ‘What
energy
is
used
for,
or
how
energy
needs
are
made,
is
in
part
a
reflecDon
of
how
governments
shape
objecDves,
investments
and
ways
of
providing
and
working
across
many
different
policy
domains’
(Shove
et
al.
2012)
• Analyses
have
highlighted
policy
across
mulDple
areas
that
has
implicaDons
for
shaping
everyday
life
with
consequences
for
energy
needs
and
vulnerabiliDes
(Butler
et
al.
2014;
Hand
et
al.
2005;
Simcock
et
al.
2015)
• To
effecDvely
understand
how
to
address
the
consDtuDon
of
demand
we
must
aWend
to
a
broad
sweep
of
policies
that
extend
beyond
what
is
currently
recognised
as
energy
policy

3. Current
UK
welfare
and
employment
policy
Poverty
and
social
jus?ce
Welfare
reform
Employment
European
funds
Older
people
Household
energy
Health
and
safety
reform
State
pension
age
Automa?c
enrolment
in
workplace
pensions
State
pension
simplifca?on
Child
maintenance
reform

4. Energy
welfare
project
methods
Document
analysis
(2015
ongoing)
Policy
and
stakeholder
in-­‐depth
qualitaDve
interviews
–
naDonal
to
local
scales
(2015-­‐2016)
Three
UK
case
study
areas:
Biographical
interviews
with
people
directly
impacted
by
welfare
policy
(Oct
2016
–
March
2017)

5. Four
dimensions
[beyond]
‘energy’
governance
• Other
policy
areas
have
direct
forms
of
influence
on
energy
needs
and
the
nature
of
contemporary
energy
issues
• They
have
influence
related
to
contribuDon
to
wider
governance
goals
and
cross
governmental
agendas
• Role
of
other
areas
of
governance
in
creaDng
longer
term
trajectories
that
influence
what
is
possible
or
not
within
energy
policy
as
well
as
consDtuDng
contemporary
needs
for
energy
• Significance
of
framing
and
agenda
seeng
outside
of
energy
policy
that
influences
what
is
conceived
as
possible

6. Directly
influencing
needs
and
vulnerabiliDes
• Welfare
reforms
can
be
highlighted
as
exacerbaDng
energy
vulnerabiliDes,
for
example
in
disproporDonately
affecDng
disabled
people
(CiDzen’s
Advice,
2015)
and
unemployed
people.
• These
groups
are
now
idenDfied
as
parDcularly
energy
vulnerable
with
new
definiDons
and
more
complex
understandings.
But
direct
aspects
of
‘energy’
policy
-­‐
cold
weather
payments
and
winter
fuel
payment
targeted
at
elderly.
• Role
of
wider
poliDcal
context
shaping
policies
across
government
–
e.g.
poliDcal
sensiDviDes
about
voters.
• Wider
welfare
policies
(e.g.
zero
hours
contracts,
work
placements)
also
shape
poverty
and
exacerbate
vulnerabiliDes

7. Directly
influencing
needs
and
vulnerabiliDes
“I’ve
worked
out
how
much
Universal
Credit
is
going
to
affect
disabled
people
and
some
people
are
going
to
be
hugely
worse
off
and
yet
they’re
saying
there’s
no
impact”
(Interviewee
Policy
Delivery)
“I
suppose
the
target
group
that
it
mainly
hits
i.e.
old
people,
is
a
poliDcally
significant
group
as
well.
The
fact
that
we're
dealing
with
elderly
people
who
are
at
risk
of
fuel
poverty
and
seem
to
have
a
lot
of
sway
poli?cally
because
they
all
vote.
As
we
know
when
it
comes
out
...
and
it
came
out
when
our
Secretary
of
State
resigned,
one
of
the
things
that
he
talked
about
was
the
poli?cal
clout
of
the
silver
voters.
That
was
quite
interesDng.
So
yeah,
it
is
a
very
poliDcal
area.
I
haven't
worked
in
an
area
of
DWP
that's
been
so
poliDcal
I
think
as
fuel
poverty”.
(Interviewee
Policy
DWP)

8. Department
roles
in
wider
policy
agendas
• Digital
technologies
as
an
increasing
proporDon
of
household
energy
demand,
and
fastest
growing
area
of
global
energy
demand
(DECC,
2015)
• Governmental
agenda
to
accelerate
the
pace
of
development
of
the
‘informaDon
society’
• PossibiliDes
for
posiDve
environmental
prospects
from
ICT
(Ropke
et
al.
2008)

9. Department
roles
in
wider
policy
agendas
“you’ve
got
all
these
Job
Centres
and
part
of
a
strategy
for
reducing
that
is
to
consolidate
Job
Centres
and
move
everything
online”
(interviewee
policy
DWP)
‘We
have
recently
launched
over
a
dozen
digital
services,
including
the
Universal
Credit,
Carers
and
Pensions
services.
Last
year,
we
delivered
7,229
iteraDons
and
changes
into
producDon.
70%
of
all
paper
correspondence
is
now
digi?sed
across
DWP,
including
incoming
post.
We’re
combining
design-­‐thinking
and
digital
technology
with
our
social
purpose
to
create
exciDng
and
innovaDve
products
and
services
which
improve
outcomes
for
22
million
people.
(DWP
Digital,
2016)

10. Policies
affecDng
change
over
Dme
• Housing
as
a
core
dimensions
of
UK
welfare
policy
historically
and
today
–
e.g.
social
housing
development,
housing
benefits,
right
to
buy.
• Material
and
social
trends
in
housing
influenced
by
welfare
policy
with
implicaDons
for
energy
intensity
of
UK
housing
and
for
energy
policy
• Material
nature
of
housing
in
the
UK
related
to
history
of
housing
as
a
welfare
policy
–
densely
built
housing
for
the
working
poor
• Social
nature
of
ownership
in
housing
related
to
welfare
policy
–
government
built
housing
versus
selling
off
of
council
houses
-­‐
implicaDons
for
current
energy
policy
possibiliDes
and
challenges

11. Policies
affecDng
change
over
Dme

12. Policies
affecDng
change
over
Dme
You
have
things
like
the
private
rented
sector
regulaDons
already
but
if
you
were
to
do
something
similar
in
the
homeowner
sector,
that
could
be
quite
controversial
and
take
up
quite
a
lot
of
poliDcal
will
to
say,
if
you
introduced
a
requirement
by
2020,
whenever
a
home
was
purchased,
it
has
to
be
a
Band
E
or
above.
So
it
would
be
maybe
the
seller
or
buyer’s
responsibility
to
bring
it
up
to
that
standard.
So
that
is
something
that
could
be
feasible
to
do
in
regula?on
but
would
be
extremely
unpopular
and
would
probably
pick
up
quite
a
lot
of
media
aVen?on
so
might
not
be
the
poli?cally
easiest
way
of
achieving
carbon
savings
so
they
are
looking
at
what
other
alternaDves
there
are
for
doing
that.
(Policy
Interviewee)

13. Framing
and
agenda
seeng
Austerity
Worklessness
Individual
Deficits
Scope
for
reshaping
policy
agendas
Being
employed
helps
promote
recovery
and
rehabilitaDon
and
prevents
the
harmful
physical,
mental
and
social
effects
of
long-­‐term
sickness
absence.
Fit
for
Work
is
designed
to…
[help]
employees
to
get
back
to
work
as
soon
as
is
appropriate.
(DWP,
2014)
Interviewee:
“I
suppose
poliDcally…
that
they’ve
gradually
over
Dme
managed
to
paint
people
on
welfare
as
scroungers
yet
most
of
the
people
on
welfare
are
actually
working
hard,
or
else
they
have
a
very
legiDmate
reason
for
not
working
but
they’ve
managed
to
paint
this
thing…
over
a
long
period
of
Dme”.
(Interviewee
Policy)

14. Framing
and
agenda
seeng
Austerity
Worklessness
Individual
Deficits
Scope
for
reshaping
policy
agendas
• Time
travel
surveys
show
increasing
levels
of
travel
related
to
work
(Carlson-­‐
Kanyama
and
Linden,
1999)
• High
job
densiDes
contribute
toward
increasing
distances
travelled
for
work
(Boussauw
et
al.
2010)
• Work
place
energy
use
versus
home
working
(Spurling
and
Mcmeekin,
2015)

15. Framing
and
agenda
seeng
Austerity
Worklessness
Individual
Deficits
Scope
for
reshaping
policy
agendas
Reimaging
different
trajectories
of
work
(Spurling
and
McMeekin,
2015)
Requires
a
different
framing
of
the
problem
beyond
individualism

16. Conclusions:
Energy
governance
• Governance
of
energy
demand
–
creaDng
intervenDons
and
socio-­‐technical
transiDons
(Strengers
and
Maller,
2015;
Smith
et
al.
2005)
• Governing
insDtuDons
are
always
already
intervening
–
even
if
through
‘freedoms’
and
have
intervened
historically
in
ways
that
can
have
different
kinds
of
outcomes
for
energy
demand
(e.g.
keeping
it
low
or
increasing
needs)
• AlternaDve
approaches
needed
to
deliver
the
scale
of
transformaDon
needed
to
meet
climate
change
targets
and
address
growing
energy
vulnerabiliDes
–
• Examining
governance
more
broadly
–
beyond
energy
policy
–
helps
to
idenDfy
scope
for
(and
challenges)
of
such
approaches

17. Thank
you
c.butler@exeter.ac.uk
@drcbutler
@energywelfare
www.energywelfareproject.org