Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Using Complexity-Based Methods to Understand a Rapidly Changing Energy System

(Scientific Research, Complex Systems, and Tools of Analysis)

A global energy transition is underway and accelerating to beat the clock as the consequences of climate change draw nearer. Policies implemented in this rapidly changing environment have a high risk of unintended consequences or ineffectiveness, even as the need for their beneficial outcomes become more crucial. Faced with a wicked problem like climate change mitigation, it is increasingly important that policy scholars deploy methods that help to unravel complex interactions among policies, technologies, and the public and build an understanding of the energy transition at the system-level.

 

This panel proposal showcases a range of projects that use complexity-based methods to understand the energy sector as a complex and dynamic socio-technical system. These papers address the conference theme —Public Policy in an Era of Rapid Change— by demonstrating the power of these cutting-edge tools to analyze interacting drivers of policy outcomes in a rapidly changing energy sector. Together, these papers underscore the role of complexity in generating policy outcomes in the energy sector, and the critical importance of understanding how complex interactions play out in the context of a rapidly changing policy arena. Although these papers focus on the energy sector, a discussion of the applicability of complexity-based tools to understand policy impacts across sectors will be a valuable contribution to the larger conversation at APPAM International, 2019.