The green state and industrial decarbonisation

Abstract

The large share of carbon emitted by energy-intensive industries in the extraction and processing of basic materials must be limited to decarbonise society and the economy. Ways in which the state can govern industrial decarbonisation and contributes to green state theory are explored by addressing a largely ignored issue: the green state's industrial relations and its role in industrial governance. With insights from a Swedish case study, the tension between the state's economic imperative and ecological concerns in greening industry are shown to persist. However, as the energy-intensive industry's previously privileged position in the economy is weakening, industry is opened to decarbonisation strategies. While the case exposes a number of governance challenges, it also suggests potential areas where the state can pursue decarbonisation in energy-intensive industry and points the way to an active role of the green state in governing industrial decarbonisation and greening industry.

The Virtuous Circle of Sustainable Welfare as a Transformative Policy Idea

“…I draw on this history and see-joining Gough [44] (p. 145)-that the policy idea of a virtuous circle of sustainable welfare favors "an active interventionist 'innovative' state, with substantial public investment and greater regulation and planning". The "green state" plays a pivotal role in decarbonizing economy [57] and facilitating the degrowth transformation [15,51]. As Koch has shown, state-led ecosocial policies can overcome the imperative of economic growth if they are "integrated into comprehensive strategy" [46] (p. 13).…”

Studying Industrial Decarbonisation: Developing an Interdisciplinary Understanding of the Conditions for Transformation in Energy-Intensive Natural Resource-Based Industry

“…Relating to theories developed by Levin et al [17], Hildingsson and Khan [70] found support for a gradually more progressive approach to policy change in the case of the Swedish energy transition. Taking a wider governance perspective, and with Sweden as an example, Hildingsson, Kronsell and Khan [71] analysed the role of the state in governing the decarbonisation of ENRIs, while Kronsell, Khan and Hildingsson [72] studied actor relations in climate policy making. They find that the tension between the state's economic imperative and ecological concerns in greening industry are shown to persist.…”

“…This could include agency-oriented and structural (institutional, discursive, normative) explanations as well as understanding mechanisms that might trigger change and create room for policy change. Other studies focus on the role of the state in relation to other actors and explore the governance conditions for employing decarbonisation strategies (e.g., [71]).…”

“…We therefore need a better understanding of regime transformation and a broader set of conceptualisations of the dynamics of industrial transformation. This has for example led to increased attention to the importance of material properties and relations [51], the role of incumbent industries [46,47,71] and the interaction between global and local levels [49]. TIS complements energy system studies by assessing the conditions for successful implementation of technologies in terms of how well the actor constellations, networks and institutional structures of the innovation system fulfil certain functions.…”

Actor relations in climate policymaking: Governing decarbonisation in a corporatist green state

“…Transition theory suggests that we pay attention to if and how innovative niche actors are included in the climate policymaking process as well as to the role of dominant regime actors. Transition scholars have mainly analysed incumbent regimes in terms of their strategies to resist change (Geels, ; Markard et al, ) although some have developed a more nuanced view on the role of incumbents showing how they can both obstruct transitions by capturing transition processes to align them with their own interests and support sustainability innovations (see, eg, Hildingsson, Kronsell, & Khan, ; Smink, ; Späth, Rohracher, & von Radecki, ). This points to the need to consider the potential of incumbent regime actors to act as change agents and what dilemmas and challenges this might entail.…”