THE ROLE OF NON-STATE ACTORS IN THE EUROPEAN ENERGY TRANSITION: THE CASES OF PORTUGAL AND GERMANY

摘要

Three years ago,the COP 21(the Paris Climate Conference)did finish up with an agreement between states on the need to limit global warming to less than 2°C(and,if possible,less than 1,5°C).Also,it was the setting for an exceptional mobilization of non-state and subnational actors,including 70 coalitions of businesses,cities,regions,NGOs and voluntary states which made commitments to do more.The number of participants in the climate challenge is rising rapidly: more than 7,000 towns in 133 countries and 245 regions of 42 countries,as well as over 6,000 companies worth 36,000 billion dollars in turnover,have participated in actions to reduce emissions(UNEP,2018).That is happening simultaneously in different regions of the world.The literature about non-state actors has outlined that their key skills and resources derive from intellectual,membership,political,and financial bases.Thus,Nasiritousi et al.(2016)have built a typology of power sources used by non-state actors to gain authority in global climate governance: symbolic(legitimacy/ability to invoke moral claims),cognitive(knowledge,expertise),social(access to networks),leverage(access to key agents and decision-making processes),and material(access to resources)powers.But what is the real impact that these non-state and subnational actors are having in the energy transition at national level? Are their actions complementary or sometimes contradictory with the national policy of each country? We analyse these questions in the European context taking two countries as case studies: Germany and Portugal.