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While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland – one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.

Highlights • Focus on policy experimentation and institutional change in transitions. • Two types of policy experiments identified in relation to innovation policy. • An in-depth case study of mobility as a service (MaaS) in Finland is presented. • Institutional change enables conducive context for policy experimentation. • Learning from policy experimentation can push transformative institutional change. ; While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland – one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.

Sustainable Development Goals aim for a better future, but gains are threatened by conflict and governance failures, exacerbated by climate change. While research on energy security is well-established, conceptual-analytical research on sustainability transitions has paid little attention to security threats as factors influencing transitions or security policy as part of policy mixes. This paper combines policy coherence and integration analysis of energy and security strategy documents with sustainability transitions' research, considering how landscape pressures and energy niches are presented in documents pertaining to Estonia, Finland and Scotland during 2006–2020. The findings show that security and energy policies present a functional overlap. Yet, policy integration and coherence are insufficiently addressed, conflicts created by coexisting low-carbon and hydrocarbon-based security considerations. An increasingly multifaceted landscape creates a complicated policy environment where pursuing policy coherence becomes harder. Despite the accelerating energy transition, the security implications of energy niches have received too little attention. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Highlights • Combining policy coherence and integration with sustainability transitions. • Policy document analysis explored the interplay of energy and security policies. • Security and defence at times integrated in energy policy, particularly in Estonia. • Lack of coherence between low-carbon energy transition and national security policy. • Security inferences of growing energy niches little covered in strategy documents. ; Sustainable Development Goals aim for a better future, but gains are threatened by conflict and governance failures, exacerbated by climate change. While research on energy security is well-established, conceptual-analytical research on sustainability transitions has paid little attention to security threats as factors influencing transitions or security policy as part of policy mixes. This paper combines policy coherence and integration analysis of energy and security strategy documents with sustainability transitions' research, considering how landscape pressures and energy niches are presented in documents pertaining to Estonia, Finland and Scotland during 2006–2020. The findings show that security and energy policies present a functional overlap. Yet, policy integration and coherence are insufficiently addressed, conflicts created by coexisting low-carbon and hydrocarbon-based security considerations. An increasingly multifaceted landscape creates a complicated policy environment where pursuing policy coherence becomes harder. Despite the accelerating energy transition, the security implications of energy niches have received too little attention.

After the perceived failure of global approaches to tackling climate change, enthusiasm for local climate initiatives has blossomed world-wide, suggesting a more experimental approach to climate governance. Innovating Climate Governance: Moving Beyond Experiments looks critically at climate governance experimentation, focusing on how experimental outcomes become embedded in practices, rules and norms. Policy which encourages local action on climate change, rather than global burden-sharing, suggests a radically different approach to tackling climate issues. This book reflects on what climate governance experiments achieve, as well as what happens after and beyond these experiments. A bottom-up, polycentric approach is analyzed, exploring the outcomes of climate experiments and how they can have broader, transformative effects in society. Contributions offer a wide range of approaches and cover more than fifty empirical cases internationally, making this an ideal resource for academics and practitioners involved in studying, developing and evaluating climate governance

Abstract
Transformative innovation policy (TIP) implies not only new directionality for innovation policy but also rethinking its means and scope. This requires further investigation into the role of horizontal and cross-sectoral policy programmes that may be relevant for upscaling innovation and destabilising regimes. This paper studies the national implementation, in Finland, of the European Union (EU) programme for COVID-19 recovery, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), as an example of a cross-sectoral policy programme. It is of interest, because the EU has set certain conditions related to sustainability transitions for the RRF. Using a transformative policy mix approach, the paper finds that the Finnish RRF Programme lists many policy measures that can be regarded as having a transformative intent. These include upscaling innovative sustainability niches and destabilising existing practices. Yet, we also found that there is a risk that cross-sectoral programmes fail to find overall transformative visions and fund multiple potentially competing technological pathways instead.

Highlights • Creating an analytical framework of intermediating transitions in the policy cycle. • Analyses intermediation in 2 building energy efficiency policy processes in Finland. • Advocating visions and influencing policy options part of intermediating to policy. • Policy translation and training as vital intermediation functions in implementation. • Intermediation deterring policy change contains inaction, disinterest or deceit. ; The roles of intermediaries in sustainability transitions are increasingly recognised. How intermediaries advance transitions vis-a-vis public policy has, however, received little attention. Thus, we create an analytical framework of intermediating policy processes, drawing from transition and policy cycle literatures. We apply this to investigate two policy processes pertaining to Finland's building energy efficiency. The findings show how the central role of the Ministry of the Environment and high political attention have reduced the need for intermediation by external organisations in agenda setting and policy formulation. However, intermediaries external to the Ministry have been vital in facilitating policy implementation. The cases show that facilitating training as an intermediary activity can be undertaken by different organisations, such as a trade union, a government agency or an education committee. Based on our analysis, we argue that, when political attention on transitions is low, the need for intermediary action is likely to be higher.

The roles of intermediaries in sustainability transitions are increasingly recognised. How intermediaries advance transitions vis-a-vis public policy has, however, received little attention. Thus, we create an analytical framework of intermediating policy processes, drawing from transition and policy cycle literatures. We apply this to investigate two policy processes pertaining to Finland's building energy efficiency. The findings show how the central role of the Ministry of the Environment and high political attention have reduced the need for intermediation by external organisations in agenda setting and policy formulation. However, intermediaries external to the Ministry have been vital in facilitating policy implementation. The cases show that facilitating training as an intermediary activity can be undertaken by different organisations, such as a trade union, a government agency or an education committee. Based on our analysis, we argue that, when political attention on transitions is low, the need for intermediary action is likely to be higher.

Institutional entrepreneurship research has described and conceptualized dramatic cases of successful institutional change. We know less about whether it can help people trying to change institutions, for example, struggling to change the energy system. Do concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature offer sustainable energy practitioners insights on the political aspects of their work? And vice-versa: do practitioners have useful insights on the potential and limits of agency in institutional change? The present study contributes to these questions through collaborative inquiry together with government-affiliated organizations with a mission to promote sustainable energy. The results suggest that concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature do serve to make practitioners' implicit competencies explicit and hence a legitimate subject for organizational development and joint learning about the political aspects of energy systems change. We conclude that institutional entrepreneurship appears to require a form of organizing that combines environmental scanning, grand strategy and everyday tactical moves on the ground. ; Peer reviewed

Institutional entrepreneurship research has described and conceptualized dramatic cases of successful institutional change. We know less about whether it can help people trying to change institutions, for example, struggling to change the energy system. Do concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature offer sustainable energy practitioners insights on the political aspects of their work? And vice-versa: do practitioners have useful insights on the potential and limits of agency in institutional change? The present study contributes to these questions through collaborative inquiry together with government-affiliated organizations with a mission to promote sustainable energy. The results suggest that concepts from the institutional entrepreneurship literature do serve to make practitioners' implicit competencies explicit and hence a legitimate subject for organizational development and joint learning about the political aspects of energy systems change. We conclude that institutional entrepreneurship appears to require a form of organizing that combines environmental scanning, grand strategy and everyday tactical moves on the ground.