Global expert evaluations of net-zero policies and actors

To successfully achieve the net-zero transition on ambitious timelines, stakeholders from across the public and private sectors must collaborate and pursue multiple, parallel policy solutions. In an international sample of experts in the net-zero energy transition (n = 430), we investigate patterns of policy support and actor responsibility. We investigate the preference schemata that shape experts’ preferred solution-sets—whether they use a single-solution (i.e., ‘silver bullet’) or a multi-solution (i.e., ‘silver buckshot’) schema. Overall, we find high support for multiple policies, including the policies of funding research, required reporting, and ambitious mandatory energy efficiency standards. We also find that perceived support for the net-zero energy transition from the public is associated with greater policy support by experts. To explore the comprehensive policy mix we apply the Causal Attribute Network (CAN) model to the ratings of policy instruments (mechanism support) and implementation (actor responsibility). We identify policy- and actor-level clusters of preference and interactions between different policies and actors. Finally, we identify eleven communities of experts that are characterized by their policy and actor evaluations. The largest community supports mandatory policies with a non-economic mechanism. Communities have different distinguishing features. Community membership accounts for variation in policy and actor ratings beyond that which is captured by demographic measures and project experience. Taken together, the individual- and network-level analyses reveal that experts are willing to accept multi-pronged solutions, but the specific solutions set is heterogeneous and reveals different cooperative paths to net-zero. We offer a new perspective for thinking about policy packages for the energy transition and advanced methods to measure the support for multi-solution policy packages.