Inevitable incoherence? Accounts on policy (in)coherence as an essentially contested concept in climate change mitigation

As different schools of thought debate whether coherence is a feasible and desirable characteristic for policy mixes, there is a need to gain a greater understanding of the root causes of climate policy (in)coherence. Through a novel conceptualisation of policy coherence as an essentially contested concept, we investigate the appraisiveness, internal complexity, diverse describability, and openness of coherence in policy mixes for climate change mitigation. We analyse 27 semi-structured interviews with EU and German policymakers involved in the renegotiation of the EU ETS. We show that policymakers' evaluations of climate policy coherence reflect personal beliefs and underlying climate policy paradigms. Our analysis, therefore, suggests that climate policy incoherence is inevitable. Specifically, we bring into relief how socio-economic imperatives and views on societal wellbeing determine policymakers’ accounts on climate policy (in)coherence. Ultimately, we argue that current strategies to strive for coherence within climate policy mixes risk serving as vehicles for vested interests.