In this project, the IPW-HSG examines the City of St. Gallen’s room to maneuver in Switzerland’s Multi-Level Energy Governance.
The Point of Departure
With its Energy Concept 2050, the City of St. Gallen has made an important step towards the 2000 watt society. Reduction targets have been defined in the energy concept for the areas of heating, electricity and mobility. The concept lists 150 measures that are intended to help achieve these targets.
The Challenge
Two challenges present themselves with respect to St. Gallen’s future energy policy: First, it is necessary to select measures from the energy concept’s action plan that can guarantee the achievement of the target specified in that concept. Second, these efforts take place in a constantly evolving political environment. Decisions interact with cantonal and federal energy policy. Political developments and strategic decisions outside of the City of St. Gallen will have important effects for the success of St. Gallen’s energy concept.
Results
The project “The Future of St. Gallen’s Energy Concept 2050 – Room to Maneuver in Switzerland’s Multi-Level Energy Governance” addressed these challenges and examined the political interactions between the energy policies of St. Gallen on the one hand, and the cantonal and federal level on the other hand.
The project explored St. Gallen’s possibilities for action in Switzerland’s multi-level energy governance system. It pointed out possibilities for how the City of St. Gallen can influence this multi-level governance and its own room for manoeuver. Finally, it developed future scenarios of the City of St. Gallen’s political environment and examined by means of which political strategies St. Gallen could cope best with the uncertainty of future developments on other governance levels.
Duration
March 2015 - February 2017
Sponsor
City of St. Gallen, Department for Environment and Energy
