The proposed colloquium seeks to establish a network of public administration scholars in the Netherlands and Belgium, who conduct research on the political economy of the green transition. For a long time, the field of political economy has developed separately from public administration and policy science. In recent years, however, we observe a growing engagement between political economy and public administration scholarship to confront pressing questions regarding the role of politics and policy in the green transition. Common research interests – e.g. state institutions, the role of experts, political decision making and policy making – offer fruitful starting points to identify overlaps in research done by those working in political economy traditions and those coming from the broader fields of public administration or political science. Our colloquium seeks to build on these overlaps to share research, build collaborations, engage early-career and senior researchers in in-depth discussions of recently published research in this field and contemporary policy debates, stimulate high-quality publications through peer feedback, and overall learn from each other. The colloquium can also serve as a springboard for more ambitious collaborations between the organisers and participants, like compiling special issues for journals or edited volumes, or submitting research projects for national and European research funding.

This colloquium seeks to examine the politics, policies and governance of the green transition. The term “green transition” is used to describe the path towards a sustainable economy, with a focus on climate neutrality by 2050, as set out in the Paris Agreement. The green transition is a multi-level governance challenge, requiring public interventions at all levels of government, from local municipalities to the federal level or in the supranational context of the European Union (EU) as well as the involvement of private sector. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of policy interventions and generously funded incentives aimed at facilitating the economic transformations required by the green transition, such as the EU Green Deal or the US Inflation Reduction Act.

Our colloquium seeks to address the following questions:
First, how are public institutions and agencies managing the green transition, both at the (sub)national level and across borders? The EU’s Green Deal legislative package aims to facilitate increased investment in green technology research and innovation, the transformation of (energy-intensive) industries, and the society-wide adoption of renewable energy sources. But governments have also used other types of instruments, such as off-balance-sheet financial instruments or regulation of private markets, to achieve these goals. This myriad of policy instruments raises questions not only of effectiveness, but also of legitimacy and accountability.

Second, how do organized interests and stakeholders (such as business or labor groups, environmental organizations, or citizens) shape the trajectories of the green transition? Given the sometimes conflicting interests of these stakeholders, the green transition has proven to be highly contentious. Consider, for example, the conflict between environmental goals and their welfare and employment implications for high-emitting agri-food and petrochemical industries. How do policymakers try to strike a balance between addressing the problems associated with the green transition and the interests of “old industries”?

Third, what are the obstacles to the implementation of the green transition and how can they be overcome? Uncertainties about market responses to policies, the market viability of cutting-edge technologies, the opposition of lobbying groups representing “old industries”, and the availability of (critical) raw materials complicate the complex implementation issues of the green transition. The green transition also depends on the availability of public funding and regulatory requirements such as stability and transparency. Recently, the strong political backlash from the Trump Administration and the rollback of previous ambitious green initiatives by the Von der Leyen EU Commission also indicate the political vulnerability of policy packages already put in place to facilitate the green transition and their strong dependence on the political support from those in office.

The activities organized in the framework of this colloquium will bring together early career scholars and senior researchers to engage with the state-of-the-art conceptual arguments, empirical data, and contemporary policy debates about the political economy of the green transition.

We also aim to enhance the quality of manuscripts in progress presented by members of the colloquium, ensuring a balance of early career and senior scholar presentations. Examples of activities include organizing:

• A reading group to discuss in-depth important recent literature, empirical data contributions in this field, and contemporary policy debates which may not be covered extensively in the existing teaching curricula or research colloquia in the individual member universities (1-2 meetings per year).
• A regular research-in-progress meeting where several colloquium members present thematically related draft manuscripts and receive feedback (2 meetings per year).
• A practitioner dialogue meeting for which we invite public officials from the Netherlands and Belgium for a panel debate to discuss practical policy insights and ongoing policy work in the field of the green transition. The practitioner dialogue will contribute towards creating societal impact for colloquium participants’ research endeavours (1 panel debate per year).

When organizing events, we are mindful of the CO2 emissions associated with frequent academic travel. For this reason, we will combine online and face-to-face activities.

The proposed duration of the colloquium is 2025-2028.

First, we will draw on the work in progress discussed during the colloquium, predominantly manuscripts in preparation for journal peer review and PhD dissertation chapters, to organize joint workshops and conference panels, such as:

1. A workshop at the annual NIG conference (annual).
2. Panels at international or national academic conferences, for example, CES, SASE, ECPR, EUSA (annual).
3. Collaborative research projects and research funding applications that bring together members of the colloquium and, possibly, other international participants from the participants’ broader networks.

Second, we plan to develop a shared research agenda that interrogates the intersections between public administration and political economy. The research agenda can form the basis of joint publication projects, such as a special issue in Bestuurskunde or other journal geared towards a Dutch or international public administration audience.

Dr. Fabio Bulfone (Leiden University)

Prof. dr. Ferdi De Ville (Ghent University)

Dr. Jasper Simons (Utrecht University)

Dr. Aneta Spendzharova (Maastricht University)

Dr. Natascha van der Zwan (Leiden University)