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Sizing up the Policy Information Systems for Energy Efficient Construction

Panel: Panel 4: Human dimensions of energy use and efficiency

Author:
Sujatha Raman, Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, UK

Abstract

Policy outcomes depend as much on how various groups perceive the process through which policy is made as on the content of the policy. With the making of the 1994-95 regulations for energy-efficient construction in the UK as its focus, this paper elaborates on this point. It first identifies the diverse ways in which various parties consulted on the new regulations perceived the process of consultation. It then goes on to consider how diverse perceptions, beliefs and types of information interact to collectively shape the policy information system. Arguing that information and interests are negotiated in the process of making policy, the paper attempts to evaluate the relative influence of these different components of the system. It concludes that there is a dominant consensus shared by opposing industrial interests as well as the government. Information on factors which might militate against the ability to know whether this policy is working and whether it can work better in the long-term is relatively marginalised. A growth in technical information on how energy consumption in buildings is affected by a range of variables, has been accompanied by a loss of information relating to the scope and enforcement of performance standards developed on their basis.

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