Scaling just transitions: Legitimation strategies in coal phase-out commissions in Canada and Germany

Gürtler, Konrad; Beer, David Löw; Herberg, Jeremias

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102406

Cited by 57 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Renewable energy and other energy transition related industries could offer alternative employment and economic development opportunities [69,70]. National and international funds to provide structural change assistance to affected regions, as well as stakeholder integration in policy processes can furthermore contribute to increase stakeholder consent to phasing out coal production [71,72].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C

Hauenstein

2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

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With the Glasgow Climate Pact 2021, the global community has committed explicitly to phasing down coal consumption. Yet the coal supply sector continues to develop new capacities, despite the risk of asset stranding. This article presents the first assessment of the implications of 1.5°C mitigation pathways for the coal mining industry. Based on open coal mine data and a new version of the open coal sector model COALMOD-World, the prospects for individual coal mining regions and their risk of early mine closures and asset stranding are analyzed. Results show that global cumulative production capacity from operating thermal coal mines exceed the remaining consumption values for 2020 through 2050 by more than 50 %. This supply-consumption discrepancy would hit Russia and the USA especially hard, causing the stranding of around 80 % of operating capacities in each case. But the early closure of operating coal mines would affect all of the world's major thermal coal producing regions, with most regions seeing more than three-fourths of their mine capacity closing early by 2030. Stranded assets from operating coal mines would total some USD2015 120 to 150 billion until 2050, with an additional USD2015 100 billion should currently proposed new coal mining projects be realized. If demand declines in accordance with 1.5°C pathways, new coal mines or mine extensions would be redundant in all coal regions. Although the stranded asset value of mines is relatively small compared to that of the coal power plant sector, early closures would especially affect workers and local communities. Thus, efforts are urgently needed to ensure a just transition in coal mining regions and to address excess operating and proposed coal supply capacities that continue to fuel global warming.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C

Hauenstein

2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…The Lusatia (Lausitz) region in Eastern Germany, a former coal production hub, is being pushed toward a massive structural transition due to the nationwide phase-out of the coal industry. The project Social Transformation and Policy Advice in Lusatia [93][94][95] has been researching and supporting this socioeconomic transition with a particular focus on ''investigating the societal challenges posed by a democratic and socially just transition in post-fossil societies.'' 96 The project involves IASS researchers working closely with local policymakers, governing bodies, and civil society initiatives.…”

Section: Social Transformation and Policy Advice In Lusatiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research

et al. 2022

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Resolving the grand challenges and wicked problems of the Anthropocene will require skillfully combining a broad range of knowledge and understandings-both scientific and non-scientific-of Earth systems and human societies. One approach to this is transdisciplinary research, which has gained considerable interest over the last few decades, resulting in an extensive body of literature about transdisciplinarity. However, this has in turn led to the challenge that developing a good understanding of transdisciplinary research can require extensive effort. Here we provide a focused overview and perspective for disciplinary and interdisciplinary researchers who are interested in efficiently obtaining a solid understanding of transdisciplinarity. We describe definitions, characteristics, schools of thought, and an exemplary three-phase model of transdisciplinary research. We also discuss three key challenges that transdisciplinary research faces in the context of addressing the broader challenges of the Anthropocene, and we consider approaches to dealing with these specific challenges, based especially on our experiences with building up transdisciplinary research projects at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. ll

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“…Decarbonization policies, such as carbon taxes and emission caps, are territorially defined devaluation forces. Antifossil fuel campaigns have promoted these policies as well as more direct forms of devaluation by targeting specific infrastructures through legal and reputational tactics organized by local, national, and international networks (Gürtler et al, 2021; Rootes, 2013). Rescaling litigation to international courts and relocating it to different jurisdictions are common spatial tactics of devaluation (Osofsky, 2005).…”

Section: Spatialities Of Devaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of devaluation: Spatialities of the German coal exit

Furnaro

2023

Environ Plan A

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This article analyzes the geographies of the German coal exit by looking at the spatial dimensions of coal devaluation. It argues that while the Energiewende has been described as having a national origin, central triggers of the national coal exit agreement have to do with devaluation pressures created by the combination of global relations in the fuel markets, the territorial bordering of electricity and carbon markets at the European Union level, and place-based and multiscalar anticoal networks. The role of place-based resistance to the past, relational, expected, and imaginary concomitant forms of devaluation in lignite regions is also described as a key spatial barrier to the German coal phase-out. It will be shown that the emergence of a coal exit agreement, which represents a national fix to address not only existing market devaluation forces, but also a double legitimacy crisis for the government, was based on spatially uneven relations. The German case is relevant for the geographies of energy transitions for showing how multispatial strategies, the spatial organization of energy markets, and the territorial regulation of energy systems shape the possibilities for the devaluation needed to accelerate the pace of the fossil fuels phase-out.

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Scaling just transitions: Legitimation strategies in coal phase-out commissions in Canada and Germany

Cited by 57 publications

References 15 publications

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C

Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research

Geographies of devaluation: Spatialities of the German coal exit

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Scaling just transitions: Legitimation strategies in coal phase-out commissions in Canada and Germany

Cited by 57 publications

References 15 publications

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5∘C

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5∘C

Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research

Geographies of devaluation: Spatialities of the German coal exit

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C

Stranded assets and early closures in global coal mining under 1.5^∘C