Meeting global climate goals requires accelerating the decarbonisation of energy systems through
deliberate policy interventions. Policy feedback literature explains this process by analysing how policy mixes and low-carbon technologies co-evolve in positive or negative feedback loops. However, most empirical studies remain rooted in Western democracies and overlook institutional context as a core variable. This gap is critical because divergent regimes operate under different political logics that create distinct feedback mechanisms, thereby shaping transition pathways. Consequently, analysts may misattribute the effectiveness of a policy to its design rather than to a favourable institutional environment.
This study addresses this gap by investigating how institutional contexts shape policy feedback
processes and influence energy transition pathways. It employs a comparative multiple case-study
design with process tracing to examine the accelerated diffusion patterns of four key clean-energy
technologies across diverse temporalities: cookstoves, solar photovoltaics and battery electric vehicles in China, and offshore wind in the UK. These cases represent diverse technological characteristics across both supply and demand sides, illustrating how feedback loops operate under evolving policy priorities and institutional conditions. The findings will extend policy feedback theory beyond Western settings and provide practical insights for strategically harnessing feedback dynamics to design more robust policy mixes that accelerate the global net-zero energy transition.