Analysis of transferability of global experience to the EU

The concept of Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) applies across various areas of energy policymaking, planning, and investment. While the concept itself is recent, there are various international examples of policies measures, regulatory frameworks, utility programmes or other initiatives that exhibit the underlying idea of prioritizing demand side resources whenever they are more cost-effective than equivalent supply side assets. In a previous report, the ENEFIRST project compiled and characterized a set of 16 case studies about international experiences with the EE1st principle. A next step is to explore if the merits of these experiences can be replicated in the jurisdiction of the EU, to drive the implementation of the EE1st principle in EU policymaking. Against this backdrop, the objective of this report is to systematically assess to what extent the previously international experiences identified are transferable to the political and legal system of the European Union and its Member States.
The theoretical literature on policy transfer generally recognises the significance of contextual factors for policies to replicate the achievements from a primary context in a target context. Contextual factors are manifold, covering the institutional and structural setting, socio-cultural concerns, and the administrative capacity of the target country. The more the contextual factors in the target context match the ones in the primary context, the more likely it is that the policy will yield similar outcomes and achievements. In accordance with these theoretical considerations, the methodology applied uses a consistent framework to assess the transferability of the 16 international experiences.

The transferability frameworks suggest that eight of the international experiences feature a high level of transferability, meaning that they are either readily transferable or already have been adopted in EU or MS legislation. However, the high transferability level does not mean that implementation in the EU is fully completed. Instead, it suggests that there remain minor contextual factors that need to be considered when attempting to augment the measure's effectiveness as well as to expand it to all 27 Member States. Seven international experiences are found to feature a medium transferability to the target context of the EU and its Member States. This means that there exist significant contextual factors that impede a direct transfer to the EU context and that are expected to result in less successful policy outcomes than in the primary context. Finally, this report identifies one international experience with EE1st that, given its present regulatory standing in EU legislation, is assigned a low level of transferability.
In conclusion, policymakers in the EU and its Member States can certainly learn from their counterparts to establish a level playing field between demand and supply side resources and thus help embed the EE1st principle. However, this reports also points out that the political and legal system of the EU features particularities in terms of institutional, socio-cultural, and administrative aspects that, ultimately, do not allow for direct replication of existing practices from abroad. Instead, embedding the EE1st principle in the EU, and truly putting demand side resources on equal footing with supply side infrastructures in all relevant instances, will require a custom set of policy and regulatory instruments that go beyond fragmented international practices.