Transnational linkages and sustainable transitions in emerging countries: Exploring the role of donor interventions in niche development

•We study the effect of 20 years of donor programs to promote a palm oil biomass waste-to-energy niche in Malaysia.•Few niche-level experiments were constructed under the donor programs despite the priority given to support these.•Advice from donor programs on energy policy had limited impact due to strong opposing interests in maintaining status quo.•The short duration and unpredictability is an important impediment for donor programs in reaching their objectives.•The paper suggests a new approach to conceptualise donor programs as one form of transnational linkage in the MLP.

Recent studies have found that further development of the MLP is needed to conceptualise and empirically assess the role of transnational linkages in niche development. This paper explores the factors that may explain the effect of twenty years of donor interventions as one form of transnational linkage in promoting the development of a palm oil biomass waste-to-energy niche in Malaysia. The paper contributes to the existing literature by a conceptual and empirical examination of this research question. With regard to its empirical findings the paper concludes: (i) that advice on energy policy had a limited impact mainly due to strong opposing interests in maintaining the existing situation; (ii) that creating the necessary conditions for transferring a private-sector model of electricity production to Malaysia remains a challenge; and (iii) that the short duration and unpredictability of interventions generally can be seen as an important impediment for programs in reaching their objectives.