This thesis examines the accelerated success of Spain’s green transition, focusing on the expansion of renewable energy generation and the decline of coal-fired energy from 2019 to 2024. Using a...Show moreThis thesis examines the accelerated success of Spain’s green transition, focusing on the expansion of renewable energy generation and the decline of coal-fired energy from 2019 to 2024. Using a historical institutionalism lens, the research analyzes the drivers behind these changes, emphasizing the role of state capacity (fiscal, legal, and collective), international and EU agreements, partisanship, and state-business dynamics. Applying a process-tracing, least-likely case study methodology and diverse data sources (including governmental documents, news articles, international and national statistics, and interviews), this paper chronologically traces Spain’s green energy transformation from a socio-technical systems and public policy approach. The empirical findings show the importance of fiscal and legal capacity to make the transition profitable, collective capacity and partisanship to deliver green public goods, strong state-business collaboration to mobilize private sector funding, and international and EU agreements to set ambitious targets shaping national policies. By exploring the interplay between political struggles and institutional contexts, this thesis highlights the complexities of implementing large-scale clean energy policies in Spain, and how and why path-dependent situations can reverse over time to enable positive change.Show less
The ratification of the Paris Agreement by the European Union has determined its trajectory and set in motion the green transition of the European economy. Even though the European climate...Show moreThe ratification of the Paris Agreement by the European Union has determined its trajectory and set in motion the green transition of the European economy. Even though the European climate ambitions seem political of nature, the European Central Bank has recently shown its willingness to support the Union’s climate ambitions within its institutional capacity. European policy research organisations put forward new ideas on greening policy instruments, which also touch upon other institutional characteristics of the ECB. However, the monetary authority is de jure independent of exogenous actors in determining its policies and strategy. Recently though, under Lagarde's presidency, the ECB has for the first time opened up to ideas from civil society, think tanks and academia when defining its new long-term "green" strategy. While the new strategy is still on the drawing board, theories from discursive institutionalism assert that ideas resonate the ECB’s communication strategy, through discourse. When juxtaposing and comparing the results from two qualitative research methods, the study concluded that specific, programmatic ideas are not significantly represented in the ECB's discourse. Instead, more a general and normative ideational shift has taken place where a stronger and more decisive change in tone has become visible in the ECB’s discourse on its green strategy that can rather be explained by other exogenous events and factors.Show less
