Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

226 Chapter 8
8.5 Lessons for transition policy
The Fourth National Environmental Policy Plan published in 2001 (VROM,
2001) introduced a new way of defining environmental problems and
launched the development of a new approach called transition policy. The
recognition that environmental problems are firmly rooted in existing
systems of production and consumption led to the conclusion that
environmental policy need to be redesigned towards system innovations, a
third generation environmental policy after earlier effect-oriented and
integrative approaches (Grin et al., 2003). This conclusion was reached by
extending existing patterns of resource use and existing policies. Existing
environmental policies had proved successful in alleviating problems such as
air pollution and water pollution by an increasing preventive and integrative
approach, but not in reducing natural resource use. A fundamental change of
course was said to be required to repair and overcome system faults
responsible for problems such as loss of biodiversity, climate change, and
over-exploitation of natural resources. Transitions towards more inherent
sustainable sociotechnical systems in a time-scale of thirty to fifty years are
required according to the document. Transition approaches for specific fields
emerged, such as for energy, transport, agriculture, and biodiversity and
natural resource use. The transition approach for energy was further
developed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ, 2002). A number of
transition routes were singled out as most promising and feasible in the
Dutch context. An interactive, process-oriented policy approach was
initiated in which various coalitions emerged that were working on
developing more specific paths within the main transition routes and could
obtain subsidies under various schemes.
We provide a short evaluation of the energy transition policy by focusing on
the nature of routes proposed, the process, and the integration with
conventional energy policy. Subsequently we will outline some of the
lessons drawn on the basis of the previous chapters.
Transition process and routes
In the course of the development of the fourth National Environmental
Policy Plan which came out in 2001, the Ministry of Economic Affairs
started to develop a transition agenda for energy and the principles of the
journey towards a sustainable energy supply were set out by a specific
transition group at the Ministry (EZ, 2001a). The journey was presented as a
search process of government and market actors. It was proposed that
individual companies should take a leading role, and to ensure this
government would select some large companies and ask them to join the
search and transition process (EZ, 2001a: 35). Based on an earlier