Does learning matter for policy outcomes? The case of integrating climate finance into the EU budget

ABSTRACT

A considerable body of work has invoked learning in seeking to explain observed patterns of EU policy change. This contribution scrutinizes the relevance of learning for understanding policy outcomes. We apply a consolidated framework based on factual, experiential and constructivist learning across the individual and organizational levels to examine the unlikely policy outcome of dedicating 20% of the EU 2014–2020 budget to climate action. Learning did play some role in the policy outcome, in that the belief that climate policy integration (CPI) was an appropriate instrument to address climate change was the result of constructivist learning over the preceding decade. However, this learning was restricted to a handful of policy entrepreneurs in Cabinet/DG Clima, who largely ‘pushed’ the policy through based on pre-existing convictions. Conversely, beyond some experiential learning, there is little evidence that learning was a significant feature of the policy process amongst actors in other European institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• European Commission
• European Union
• learning
• policy change
• policy entrepreneurs

Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to all interviewees, Berthold Rittberger, Jeremy Richardson and three referees for their comments on an early version of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Katharina Rietig is Lecturer in International Politics in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, United Kingdom.

Richard Perkins is Associate Professor of Environmental Geography at the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom.

Notes

1 We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out this distinction.

2 European Commission.

3 Member state.