Deliberate decline: An emerging frontier for the study and practice of decarbonization

Abstract

Promoting low-carbon innovation has long been a central preoccupation within both the practice and theory of climate change mitigation. However, deep lock-ins indicate that existing carbon-intensive systems will not be displaced or reconfigured by innovation alone. A growing number of studies and practical initiatives suggest that mitigation efforts will need to engage with the deliberate decline of carbon-intensive systems and their components (e.g., technologies and practices). Yet, despite this realisation, the role of intentional decline in decarbonization remains poorly understood and the literature in this area continues to be dispersed among different bodies of research and disciplines. In response, this article structures the fragmented strands of research engaging with purposive decline, interrogating the role it may play in decarbonization. It does so by systematically surveying concepts with particular relevance for intentional decline, focusing on phase-out, divestment, and destabilization.

Navigating institutional complexity in socio-technical transitions

“…This conceptualization has triggered highly productive lines of research. Scholars have applied an institutional perspective on transitions to explore how socio-technical systems transform in urban or regional contexts (Frantzeskaki et al, 2017;Strambach and Pflitsch, 2020), how taken-for-granted regime structures are de-institutionalized (Kungl and Geels, 2018;Rosenbloom and Rinscheid, 2020), or how 'niche' actors may strategically institutionalize a competing rationality through collective institutional work (Binz et al, 2016a;Fuenfschilling and Truffer, 2016). At the same time, the institutional perspective is still a relatively new addition to transition studies, which needs to be further specified in various respects.…”

“…One key theme that has not received ample attention is how transitioning from one dominant socio-technical configuration to another implies, by definition, that institutional complexity is generated in a field, which then has to be settled through both organizational and system-level change processes. Improving our understanding of what happens in prolonged phases of institutional complexity in a transition process could help address fundamental questions around how niche-regime interactions play out, why transitions succeed in some instances, while they fail in others, or how actors may pro-actively reconcile incompatible cultural demands in 'hot' phases of contestation (Rosenbloom and Rinscheid, 2020;Yuana et al, 2020).…”

The Oxymoron of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Escaping Carbon Lock-In and yet Perpetuating the Fossil Status Quo?

“…For example, fossil fuel divestment emerged as the global social movement that aims at undermining the legitimacy of fossil fuel industry (Rosenbloom and Rinscheid, 2020). While being successful as effective media campaigns for spreading an anti-fossil fuel norm (Green, 2018), the divestment movement largely failed to alter the capital flow into fossil fuel stocks in financial markets as a whole (Mormann, 2020).…”

“…Here, the pictures of "decarbonising" energy systems become murky. On the one hand, there is a growing call for deliberately reducing-and even prohibiting-the production and consumption of fossil fuels (Green, 2018;Piggot et al, 2018Piggot et al, , 2020Rosenbloom and Rinscheid, 2020). The assumption of such a call is that building an anti-fossil fuel norm and increasing the risk of stranded assets through financial divestment and other means will lead to more immediately phasing out fossil fuels and hence accelerating a transition towards non-fossil energy.…”

Mapping the contours of an emerging phase out science

“…This fundamental restructuring necessitates the downscaling of specific technologies, materials and practices at the root of various sustainability crises. Strategies to achieve this are attracting increasing interest from scholars and policymakers [2][3][4][5]. This rapidly expanding literature recognises that advancing the creation and diffusion of sustainable alternatives is necessary -but not sufficient on its own -for overcoming challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and chemical pollution [6][7][8].…”