Going Dutch? Governance of heat transitions in the UK and the Netherlands
About the project
Going Dutch? was a 2-year research project, led from the 海角社区 and funded by the UK Energy Research Centre, that compared governance arrangements for heat decarbonisation and natural gas phase-out in the UK and the Netherlands and investigated how these arrangements have been shaped by different political and institutional contexts.
Going Dutch? has received funding from UKERC (Phase 4, EP/SO29575/1)
- Research aims and approach
The Going Dutch? research team:
- assessed current governance approaches to heat decarbonisation in the UK and the Netherlands,
- investigated how these approaches has been shaped by the two different national institutional contexts,
- and ascertained what useful lessons from the Netherlands, especially for the governance of heat transitions at a local level, may have value for the UK.
The UK and the Netherlands are the most dependent on natural gas for heating homes amongst European and OECD countries. They are embarking on a transition away from natural gas from a similar starting point; domestic gas production is declining in both countries, both have liberalised gas and electricity markets and both are looking to the same range of low-carbon technologies to solve the problem. They also both have strong climate policy frameworks.
However, there are also differences in how the two countries are embarking on the transition, especially in areas such as the degree of planning and the role of local government.
For more information about the project’s rationale, objectives, analytical approach, methodology and expected outputs, please see the Project Description document.
- Case Studies
Going Dutch? chose four cities in the Netherlands to use as case studies. Here is why we chose them.
Dutch case studies
- Articles
- Matthew Lockwood and Anna Devenish. . Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 50, 100818, March 2024.
- Anna Devenish and Matthew Lockwood. . Energy Policy, 187, 114027, April 2024.
- Reports
- Presentations
- On the Dutch approach to heat decarbonisation and lessons for the UK to Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, UK government, 27 March 2023
- On the impact of political and economic institutions and administrative decentralisation on governance approaches to residential heat decarbonisation in the UK and the Netherlands at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs’ Climate and Energy Week on 15 June 2022 and at the International Conference on Energy Research & Social Science on 23 June 2022.
- On the UK approach to residential heat decarbonisation at the Amsterdam offices of the TNO on May 23, 2022.
- On the rationale, objectives, work plan and key issues of the Going Dutch? project to the Advisory Group meeting on November 2, 2021.
- On the Going Dutch? project to the UK Energy Research Centre’s Heat Decarbonisation meeting on June 21, 2021.
- Our research team
- (Principle Investigator)
- Dr Niall Kerr (Co-investigator)
- Our Advisory Board
• Dr David Hawkey, Scottish Government
• Dr Casper Tigchelaar, TNO
• Dr Richard Lowes, Exeter University/Regulatory Assistance Project
• Prof Janette Webb, Edinburgh University
• Lucy Padfield, ADE/Ramboll
• Emily Morris/Holly Jeffers, DESNZ
• Prof Geert Verboong, Eindhoven University of Technology
- Partners
- Science Policy Research Unit, 海角社区 Business School
- School of Social and Political Science, The University of Edinburgh
- Catapult Energy Systems
- Contact us
- Email: M.Lockwood@sussex.ac.uk
- Phone: +44 (0)1273 873539 Ext.3539