La costruzione discorsiva dell’evidenza empirica nelle politiche sul clima dell'UE

EU’s approach to biofuel has changed over time, from the definition of this source of energy as a solution to climate change to its representation as a threat for forests. What accounts for this change? We show that, despite environmental NGOs have been pointing at the implications of biofuel for deforestation since the early 2000s, the EU started revising biofuel policy only after scientists have questioned existing regulation. In this article we take a discursive institutionalist approach to policy-making. The limited salience of the environmentalist discourse is explained through the slow institutionalization of the EU forest policy. Limits in the coordination of different DGs and the ill-defined consultation procedures are further explanatory variables.