DEL RÉGIMEN GENERAL CAPÍTULO UNO

The objective of this thesis is to understand the local environmental policies and instruments, which are addressing energy transition and understand the conditions that support energy transition at the local level. This objective is reached by giving answer on the research question: “What explains the difference between Municipalities vis-à-vis local environmental policy regarding energy transition?” Specifically, by analysing the effect of environmental friendliness of a dominant party on the adoption of local environment policies and the effect of demographic characteristics on the adoption of local environment policies. The analysis shows that environmental friendliness of a dominant party matters for the adoption of environmental local policies. Municipalities with a dominant environmental party have a higher environmental policy score. This means that these Municipalities tend to adopt more local environmental policies to realize energy transition on local level. Furthermore, by only considering environmental friendliness of dominant party it can be concluded that Municipalities with dominant environmental parties adopt more environmental policies, which could probably lead to a faster energy transition in the Municipality. This could be a point for further analyses, to measure if Municipalities with a dominant environmental party indeed lead to a faster energy transition for example by comparing renewable energy production.

According to Van den Heuvel (2012), local governments use legal, economical and communicative policy instruments in order to realize certain climate goals and targets. As mentioned by Smedby (2016), the approach to tackle climate challenge and reach the climate targets in terms of actors and institutions that are involved is becoming more scattered. On the one hand, Municipalities emerge as the first government authority linked to its citizens, which makes them more accessible, better attuned to local needs and thereby they have the ability to realize and promote energy transition. But, on the other hand, the approach to realize energy transition will become scattered when all Municipalities will develop their own environmental policy composition. By analysing the environmental policies and instruments introduced by Municipalities, it can be concluded that there is no sign of systematic clustering of policies. The policies have a weak correlation with each other, which means that the policies are independent from each other. So, Municipalities probably choose what composition is most fitting for their city.

In this research demographic characteristics are also analysed in order to see if the characteristics have affect on the adoption of local environment policies. From all of the demographic characteristics one of the characteristic jumps out, which is elderly dependency ratio. Younger people tend to be more flexible compared to older people (65 years above) who have a static attitude towards change (environmental polies). This is confirmed also at a municipal level; Municipalities with higher proportion of younger people tend to adopt more local environmental policies. Average income per household is another demographic characteristic. The relationship between average income and environmental policy adoption is the other way around, compared to what theory states. The theory states that people with a higher relative income level are financially more flexible compared to people with a low- income level, which makes high-income people more supportive towards environmental policy (Liere and Dunlap, 1980). Important to mention that this variable has a limitation, which is the ecological fallacy. The ecological fallacy arises when the results of an analysis based on area-level aggregate statistics are incorrectly assumed to apply at the individual level. Finally, for the residential status, distinction between urban and rural Municipalities, the analysis shows that there is no significant relationship between adopted environmental policies and residential status.

To answer the research question, it can be said that environmental friendliness measured by climate label and elderly dependency ratio have significant explanation for the variation in adoption of environmental local policies. But there are other factors, which are probably also having an affect on adoption on local environmental polices. These factors will be discussed in the next paragraph in section recommendation for further research.

5.1 Discussion and recommendation

In the Netherlands we see that on the one hand, Municipalities are appointed to develop environment policies as they know the local needs better and thereby have the ability to realize and promote energy transition better, compared to national government authorities on higher level. But, on the other hand, the approach to realize energy transition becomes scattered, when Municipalities develop their own environmental policy. This research proved that Municipalities decide to implement environmental policies, which are relevant for their city. A discussion point is that since different regions are differently endowed in term of natural resources, levels of economic activities, cultural backgrounds, etc. some local

jurisdiction will generate more revenue than others and afford their citizens more or better quality services than is provided in poorer jurisdiction. This can lead to extreme disparities between Municipalities.

Within local governments there are many different determinants besides political constellations and Municipality characteristics (socio-economic, age composition and residential status) that affect environmental policies. There are counties, utility districts, coalitions in Municipality and many more, which are possible determinants to participate in further research. Another important determinant, which could play a significant role in determining environmental policy, is the particular sector (agriculture, industrial, etc.) that has the overhand in a Municipality. This thesis shows for example, that the Randstad regions and northeast region both have a lower environmental policy score compared to the central area of the Netherlands. The Randstad region and northeast region are known as industrialized emission producing regions, with the biggest Port of Europe in Rotterdam and largest gas field of the country in Groningen. The central region of the Netherlands has the largest forests of the country, which gives this region a “greener” and therefore probably an explanation for more environmental policy awareness. Furthermore, citizens and businesses are also pro- active in organizing and developing environmental initiatives. The extent to which local government empowers its own local citizens and the effect of such policies on social cohesion could be a natural extension of this thesis. Finally, it would be interesting to find out what the effect is of each policy instrument and how are they interrelated. The energy transition is not reached by only understanding the means and urgency, such as going from fossil energy to renewable energy. In order to realize the energy transition citizens must follow up by their pro-environmental actions (e.g. investing in solar-, wind-, hydro-, bio-, geothermal energy). By analysing the effect of each policy, central government could create a benchmark for Municipalities, which commit all Municipalities to at least level themselves to the benchmark.

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