Introduction. To contribute to the reduction of global warming, The Netherlands signed the Paris Agreement on 12-12-2015, which dictates that in 2030, a reduction of 55% in CO¬2 emissions compared to 1990 must be achieved (P. Boot et al., 2016; Sociaal-Economische Raad, 2013). To meet these goals, several Dutch regions started their Regional Energy Strategy (RES) formulation process in 2016. A RES is a collaboration of private and public parties that strives to effectively balance energy supply and demand within the regional boundaries by focussing on sustainable energy generation, energy savings and the benefits from economies of scale (Schuurs & Schwencke, 2017). Going through such a process with the relevant stakeholders will ultimately result in new regional policy in the field of energy. The ‘Metropolitan region Rotterdam The Hague’ (MRDH) is one of the 30 regions of the Netherlands. Its diverse economic activity, great variety in municipality sizes and key economic and infrastructural players such as the Port of Rotterdam and Greenport West-Holland contribute to the region’s complexity. The MRDH started the RES formulation process in February 2018 and endeavours to deliver the outcome in July 2019. The owners of this process are its 23 municipalities, its waterboards and the province of South-Holland.
Knowledge gap. In the field of process management, several core values exist which play a role in each process, such as trust, openness, progress, and content. Scientific literature does not express the weight of these values, as these depend on the process’ context. Additionally, it is unclear how a high level of complexity impacts the process architecture and potential process interventions. In the field of regional governance very limited scientific literature is available. That in itself is remarkable, as the process approach is growing steadily (Boogers, Klok, Denters, & Sanders, 2016). Regional governance –a governance level in between the municipal and provincial level– is controversial. The scientific debate focuses on several aspects. First, regional governance would lead to administrative chaos and complexity. Second, regional governance could lead to the hollowing out of local governance, thereby reducing the democratic quality. Lastly, the question is what organisational form of regional governance can best be employed; is it monocentric, a concentration of regional governance in one authority, or polycentric, a fragmented system of collaborative arrangements into which independent municipalities are free to enter?
Central research question. The process’ stakeholders have different perceptions of the RES assignment. These ‘different assignment perceptions’ are caused by the abstractness of the assignment, and the fact that the original assignment has been changed by the influences of the interim reports of the Climate Agreement. The Climate Agreement is a national treaty that mainly aims at the reduction of CO2 emissions in the Netherlands. The fact that the stakeholders perceive the assignment differently leads to several problems in the formulation process. Some of these problems even form a severe threat to the core values of process management. To solve these problems, the process managers perform a variety of process interventions to align the perceptions of the stakeholders.The main research question is: ‘How are problems resulting from stakeholders’ different perceptions of the assignment ‘Energiestrategie regio Rotterdam Den Haag’ addressed by the use of process management?Research design and methods. This study applies the case study method on the MRDH region. To answer the research questions, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. First, an examination is made of what the leading assignment for the RES MRDH is and how it has been influenced by the Climate Agreement. Second, the assignment perceptions of the owners are examined through 26 stakeholder interviews. The parties that published the RES assignment (i.e., IPO, VNG, UvW and the Ministry of Internal Affairs) are interviewed on their perception as well. These data are analysed using the qualitative data software ‘ATLAS TI’. Through a workshop with the process managers it is determined how the different assignment perceptions impact on the process. Utilising an influence tree, the consequences of these different assignment perceptions are visualised. It has turned out that real problems that actually occurred in the process could be linked to the consequences. Next, the process coordinator has been interviewed several times to analyse the context and the performed process interventions of these problems through a lens of process management. The last part describes the currently relevant problems that still need process intervention(s). For one problem, a ‘solution-panel’ has been gathered, consisting of several experts, to find suitable process interventions.
Results. The findings show that the interim deliverables of the Climate Agreement demand a higher level of detail of the RES outcome. The interviews indicate that the majority of the owners share the following image: ‘The RES is a municipal and regional plan that is based on facts and figures, intended to work towards a future energy system in pursuit of the regional or national climate objectives’ (Section 5.5.1, Figure 7). The assignment perception of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the umbrella organisations comes down to: ‘The RES is a masterplan which combines multiple perspectives. Eventually, these different dimensions must be merged and realised in the municipalities’ spatial environment’ (Section 5.7). Concerning process management, the process architect and coordinator have chosen to implement two foundations for a robust process course. These provide solidity, controllability and should prevent problems. Nevertheless, ten problems have been identified as a result of different assignment perceptions. Six of them have been resolved by conducting municipal consultations and the extension of the process lead time. These process interventions have been performed to secure an adequate involvement of the municipalities’ official organisation to the RES formulation process. Another process intervention included the reframing of the RES to meet the expectations of specific stakeholders. Next, to stimulate the spatial integration of the assignment, the spatial area civil servants were invited for the workshops during the spring of 2019. Lastly, bilateral meetings were held between the process coordinator and the aldermen of the municipalities to clarify points of view and to adjust the aldermen their attitude in the RES process. To solve the problem of ‘the national RES assignment demands for concrete top-down objectives while the RES needs bottom-up collaboration’, the solution panel has suggested that process management can be employed for creating a safe environment in the pursuit of ‘shared ownership’ of the assignment.
Discussion. An interpretation of the applied process management is that the high complexity of the region has led to a wide range of assignment perceptions which in turn needed comprehensive process architecture and several process interventions. Besides, the process managers value the core values of process management of De Bruijn, Ten Heuvelhof, & In ’T Veld (2010) depending upon the process agreements and the agreed level of ambition. Also, the results led to the assumption that the core value ‘progress’ forms a trade-off with ‘content’. Concerning regional governance; ‘administrative chaos and complexity’ carries a negative emotional charge. The popular thought is that administrative chaos and complexity causes reduced democratic legitimacy, less trust due to the multitude of partners, and poor effectiveness. These are incorrect by fact. Therefore, the researcher opts for new terminology: ‘administrative intensification’. The results of the democratic quality of the RES can be interpreted as excellent, as only two of the 23 municipalities have no (or partial) influence on the RES formulation process. In fact, these two municipalities were not represented as they had internal problems. Based on this result, the findings of Boogers et al. (2016) –indicating that around 90% of the alderman having an effective influence on regional decision-making– can be confirmed. Further research. Regarding process management, further research should examine the RES formulation processes of the other Dutch regions to discover how the core values of process management have been applied, and whether relations between the process context and the core values exist. In the field of regional governance, further research should investigate how this ‘new renewable energy implementation challenge’ can be poured into the current multi-layer governance system while preserving democratic legitimacy. Furthermore, when regional governance structures resulting from the RES process have been set up, further research should be undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of the collaborations in such structure.