Yenilenebilir enerjinin arkasındaki başarı nedenleri: Almanya, Büyük Britanya, Brezilya ve Türkiye'nin karşılaştırmalı bir analizi

This study is an attempt to investigate the reasons behind the renewable energy performance of two developed and two developing nations: Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Turkey. Employing a most similar systems design, the analysis compares the developing and developed cases on a pair-wise basis in the 1990-2010 period. The renewable energy success is evaluated as the share of renewable energy within total primary energy supply and the factors leading to the success are sought in five different perspectives that form the groups of hypotheses: economics and welfare, environmental protection, security, state prestige and globalization, and civic virtue. The subject matter of the comparison is situated at the intersection of three theoretical frameworks: the literature on the environment, security studies and globalization. This literature is conducive to underlining the increasing importance of energy, especially in an age characterized by accelerating environmental degradation, climate change, and decreasing conventional energy resources; hence, it enables renewable energy to offer a possible remedy. Bringing a critical approach to realism, the analysis stresses the significance of energy security as part of national security and human security that complements the state security. The research presents the development of environmental protectionism and renewable energy at the crossroad of state and society in individual cases and aims to contribute to the literature through its comparative nature. The findings indicate that similar reasons affect the renewable energy success of developed and developing cases; economic means to invest in renewable energy along with the importance attached to welfare and national security emerge as the strongest explanations. Keywords: Renewable energy, developed countries, developing countries, environmentalism, energy security, economic power, welfare