Decarbonising the Macedonian Economy:Evaluating Consistency and Coherence of Climate and Energy

Macedonia is implementing a multitude of climate and energy policies concurrently aiming to mitigate climate change and CO2 emissions. These policies can interact in various ways depending on the differing objectives, instruments, measures, and implementation practices, resulting in an inconsistent and incoherent policy mix. Furthermore, with the submission of an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution document, the country has set forth a singular target to decrease its CO2 emissions. The main research problem that the thesis addresses is the evaluation of the consistency and coherence of climate and energy policies in Macedonia, and the associated implications for achieving the INDC target, with a focus on renewable energy policies. The aims of the research are 1) to contribute to the coherence of the Macedonian climate and energy policies; and, 2) to contribute to the development of the coherence criterion in climate and energy policy evaluation. The methodology combined an LMDI decomposition analysis (in a historical and a scenario perspective) with a review of energy and climate policies, and semi-structured interviews to establish the context, the policy objectives in relation to the INDC target, and determine the implications of the target on policy coherence. An analytical framework was developed to evaluate the consistency and coherence of the present policy mix. The results show that the country has continued the transformation to a service based economy with energy intensity decreasing, however it still offers many mitigating opportunities for improving in the future. Furthermore, the evaluation of the current policy mix showed many inconsistencies and incoherences, especially in the energy strategies, which could be resolved by firstly establishing consistency and integrating the objectives across the policy mix, and secondly by improving the administrative capacity, decreasing the administrative complexity and legal uncertainty, ensuring transparency in policy making, establishing policy monitoring mechanisms, and introducing effective financial incentives.