IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revpol/v37y2020i3p342-368.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Politics of Technology Decline: Discursive Struggles over Coal Phase‐Out in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Karoliina Isoaho
  • Jochen Markard

Abstract

The decline of carbon intensive technologies is a key element in the ongoing energy transition and our attempts to tackle climate change. At the same time, our understanding of technology decline and of the associated policies and politics is still limited. This paper builds on the sustainability transitions perspective, a novel approach to analyze socio‐technical transformation, including the complex interplay of policy and technology change. We study the decline of coal‐fired power generation in the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2017 by analyzing the discourse in The Guardian. We find scientists and environmental NGOs criticizing coal for climate and health reasons. Government and incumbent businesses tried to re‐legitimate coal but eventually, their resistance collapsed and coal was almost completely abandoned in just a few years. Particularly devastating for coal were failed promises around carbon capture and storage, rapid diffusion of wind energy, and pressure from various policies. This study contributes to better understanding the contested nature of decline, and the interplay of discursive struggles, technology change, and public policy in sustainability transitions. 碳密集型技术衰退是正在进行的能源转型、和我们为应对气候变化所做的尝试中的一个关键要素。同时，我们对技术衰退和相关政策及政治的理解还有限。本文基于可持续性转型视角的新颖方法，分析包括政策与技术变革的复杂相互影响在内的社会‐技术转型。我们通过分析《卫报》中的话语，研究了2000年至2017年间燃煤发电的衰退。我们发现，科学家和环境非政府组织因气候和健康原因对燃煤进行批判。政府和负有责任的企业试图对燃煤再合法化，但最后以失败告终，燃煤仅在几年间便几乎被完全放弃使用。对燃煤而言最具摧毁性的则是碳捕捉和储存方面的失败承诺、风能的快速扩散、以及不同政策带来的压力。本文促进理解了受争议的技术衰退本质、以及可持续性转型中话语争夺、技术变革和公共政策之间的相互影响。 El declive de las tecnologías intensivas en carbono es un elemento clave en la transición energética en curso y nuestros intentos de abordar el cambio climático. Al mismo tiempo, nuestra comprensión del declive tecnológico y de las políticas y políticas asociadas sigue siendo limitada. Este documento se basa en la perspectiva de las transiciones de sostenibilidad, un enfoque novedoso para analizar la transformación socio‐técnica, que incluye la compleja interacción del cambio de políticas y tecnología. Estudiamos la disminución de la generación de energía a carbón en el Reino Unido de 2000 a 2017 analizando el discurso en The Guardian. Encontramos científicos y ONG ambientales que critican el carbón por razones climáticas y de salud. El gobierno y las empresas establecidas intentaron volver a legitimar el carbón, pero finalmente, su resistencia colapsó y el carbón fue abandonado casi por completo en solo unos pocos años. Particularmente devastadores para el carbón fueron las promesas fallidas en torno a la captura y almacenamiento de carbono, la rápida difusión de la energía eólica y la presión de varias políticas. Este estudio contribuye a comprender mejor la naturaleza controvertida del declive y la interacción de las luchas discursivas, el cambio tecnológico y las políticas públicas en las transiciones de sostenibilidad.

Suggested Citation

  • Karoliina Isoaho & Jochen Markard, 2020. "The Politics of Technology Decline: Discursive Struggles over Coal Phase‐Out in the UK," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 342-368, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:37:y:2020:i:3:p:342-368
    DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12370
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12370
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ropr.12370?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Turnheim, Bruno & Geels, Frank W., 2013. "The destabilisation of existing regimes: Confronting a multi-dimensional framework with a case study of the British coal industry (1913–1967)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1749-1767.
    2. Trencher, Gregory & Healy, Noel & Hasegawa, Koichi & Asuka, Jusen, 2019. "Discursive resistance to phasing out coal-fired electricity: Narratives in Japan's coal regime," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 782-796.
    3. Teräväinen, Tuula & Lehtonen, Markku & Martiskainen, Mari, 2011. "Climate change, energy security, and risk--debating nuclear new build in Finland, France and the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3434-3442, June.
    4. Hess, David J., 2014. "Sustainability transitions: A political coalition perspective," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 278-283.
    5. Geels, Frank W. & Kern, Florian & Fuchs, Gerhard & Hinderer, Nele & Kungl, Gregor & Mylan, Josephine & Neukirch, Mario & Wassermann, Sandra, 2016. "The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 896-913.
    6. Florian Kern, 2012. "The discursive politics of governing transitions towards sustainability: the UK Carbon Trust," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1/2), pages 90-106.
    7. Grubler, Arnulf, 2012. "Energy transitions research: Insights and cautionary tales," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 8-16.
    8. Magda M. Smink & Marko P. Hekkert & Simona O. Negro, 2015. "Keeping sustainable innovation on a leash? Exploring incumbents’ institutional strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 86-101, February.
    9. Penna, Caetano C.R. & Geels, Frank W., 2012. "Multi-dimensional struggles in the greening of industry: A dialectic issue lifecycle model and case study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(6), pages 999-1020.
    10. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    11. I. A. Grant Wilson & Iain Staffell, 2018. "Rapid fuel switching from coal to natural gas through effective carbon pricing," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(5), pages 365-372, May.
    12. Turnheim, Bruno & Geels, Frank W., 2012. "Regime destabilisation as the flipside of energy transitions: Lessons from the history of the British coal industry (1913–1997)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 35-49.
    13. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    14. Lehotský, Lukáš & Černoch, Filip & Osička, Jan & Ocelík, Petr, 2019. "When climate change is missing: Media discourse on coal mining in the Czech Republic," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 774-786.
    15. Sarasini, Steven, 2013. "Institutional work and climate change: Corporate political action in the Swedish electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 480-489.
    16. Jonas Meckling, 2011. "The Globalization of Carbon Trading: Transnational Business Coalitions in Climate Politics," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 11(2), pages 26-50, May.
    17. Kivimaa, Paula & Kern, Florian, 2016. "Creative destruction or mere niche support? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 205-217.
    18. Tobias S. Schmidt & Sebastian Sewerin, 2017. "Technology as a driver of climate and energy politics," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(6), pages 1-3, June.
    19. Andy Stirling, 2014. "Transforming Power: social science and the politics of energy choices," SPRU Working Paper Series 2014-03, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    20. Jonas Meckling & Thomas Sterner & Gernot Wagner, 2017. "Policy sequencing toward decarbonization," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(12), pages 918-922, December.
    21. Isoaho, Karoliina & Karhunmaa, Kamilla, 2019. "A critical review of discursive approaches in energy transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 930-942.
    22. Rosenbloom, Daniel & Berton, Harris & Meadowcroft, James, 2016. "Framing the sun: A discursive approach to understanding multi-dimensional interactions within socio-technical transitions through the case of solar electricity in Ontario, Canada," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1275-1290.
    23. McMeekin, Andrew & Geels, Frank W. & Hodson, Mike, 2019. "Mapping the winds of whole system reconfiguration: Analysing low-carbon transformations across production, distribution and consumption in the UK electricity system (1990–2016)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1216-1231.
    24. Catherine Mitchell, 2016. "Momentum is increasing towards a flexible electricity system based on renewables," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(2), pages 1-6, February.
    25. Markard, Jochen & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2016. "Analysis of complementarities: Framework and examples from the energy transition," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 63-75.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Augustin Danneaux & Thomas Le Gallic & Julien Lefèvre, 2023. "Employment Implications of Transitioning to Net Zero: Revealing Transition Risks through Downscaling," Post-Print hal-04477711, HAL.
    2. Weiss, Daniel & Nemeczek, Fabian, 2021. "A text-based monitoring tool for the legitimacy and guidance of technological innovation systems," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Thomas Le Gallic & Augustin Danneaux & Julien Lefèvre, 2023. "Employment Implication of Coal Phase-Out: Revealing Transition Risks through Downscaling," Post-Print hal-04477762, HAL.
    4. Apostolos Tranoulidis & Rafaella-Eleni P. Sotiropoulou & Kostas Bithas & Efthimios Tagaris, 2022. "Decarbonization and Transition to the Post-Lignite Era: Analysis for a Sustainable Transition in the Region of Western Macedonia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Ergen, Timur & Schmitz, Luuk, 2023. "The sunshine problem: Climate change and managed decline in the European Union," MPIfG Discussion Paper 23/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. Daniel Weiss & Philipp Scherer, 2021. "Mapping the Territorial Adaptation of Technological Innovation Systems—Trajectories of the Internal Combustion Engine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Christoph H. Stefes & Carol Hager, 2020. "Resistance to Energy Transitions," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 286-291, May.
    8. Faber, Hugo, 2023. "How does falling incumbent profitability affect energy policy discourse? The discursive construction of nuclear phaseouts and insufficient capacity as a threat in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Yanguas Parra, Paola & Hauenstein, Christian & Oei, Pao-Yu, 2021. "The death valley of coal – Modelling COVID-19 recovery scenarios for steam coal markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lindberg, Marie Byskov & Markard, Jochen & Andersen, Allan Dahl, 2019. "Policies, actors and sustainability transition pathways: A study of the EU’s energy policy mix," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(10).
    2. Markard, Jochen, 2020. "The life cycle of technological innovation systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    3. Daniel Rosenbloom & Adrian Rinscheid, 2020. "Deliberate decline: An emerging frontier for the study and practice of decarbonization," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    4. Andersen, Allan Dahl & Markard, Jochen, 2020. "Multi-technology interaction in socio-technical transitions: How recent dynamics in HVDC technology can inform transition theories," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Edmondson, Duncan L. & Kern, Florian & Rogge, Karoline S., 2019. "The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems: Towards a conceptual framework of policy mix feedback in sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(10).
    6. Weigelt, Carmen & Lu, Shaohua & Verhaal, J. Cameron, 2021. "Blinded by the sun: The role of prosumers as niche actors in incumbent firms’ adoption of solar power during sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    7. Rosenbloom, Daniel & Berton, Harris & Meadowcroft, James, 2016. "Framing the sun: A discursive approach to understanding multi-dimensional interactions within socio-technical transitions through the case of solar electricity in Ontario, Canada," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1275-1290.
    8. Johan Miörner & Jonas Heiberg & Christian Binz, 2021. "Global regime diffusion in space: a missed transition in San Diego’s water sector," GEIST - Geography of Innovation and Sustainability Transitions 2021(08), GEIST Working Paper Series.
    9. Steen, Markus & Weaver, Tyson, 2017. "Incumbents’ diversification and cross-sectorial energy industry dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1071-1086.
    10. Cheng Wang & Tao Lv & Rongjiang Cai & Jianfeng Xu & Liya Wang, 2022. "Bibliometric Analysis of Multi-Level Perspective on Sustainability Transition Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-31, March.
    11. Allan Dahl Andersen & Jochen Markard, 2017. "Innovating incumbents and technological complementarities: How recent dynamics in the HVDC industry can inform transition theories," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20170612, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    12. Jonas Heiberg & Christian Binz & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Assessing transitions through socio-technical network analysis – a methodological framework and a case study from the water sector," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2035, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2020.
    13. Isoaho, Karoliina & Karhunmaa, Kamilla, 2019. "A critical review of discursive approaches in energy transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 930-942.
    14. Heiberg, Jonas & Truffer, Bernhard & Binz, Christian, 2022. "Assessing transitions through socio-technical configuration analysis – a methodological framework and a case study in the water sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    15. Faber, Hugo, 2023. "How does falling incumbent profitability affect energy policy discourse? The discursive construction of nuclear phaseouts and insufficient capacity as a threat in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    16. Turnheim, Bruno & Nykvist, Björn, 2019. "Opening up the feasibility of sustainability transitions pathways (STPs): Representations, potentials, and conditions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 775-788.
    17. Brauers, Hanna & Oei, Pao-Yu, 2020. "The political economy of coal in Poland: Drivers and barriers for a shift away from fossil fuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    18. Kriechbaum, Michael & Posch, Alfred & Hauswiesner, Angelika, 2021. "Hype cycles during socio-technical transitions: The dynamics of collective expectations about renewable energy in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    19. Markard, Jochen & Wirth, Steffen & Truffer, Bernhard, 2016. "Institutional dynamics and technology legitimacy – A framework and a case study on biogas technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 330-344.
    20. Geels, Frank W., 2020. "Micro-foundations of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions: Developing a multi-dimensional model of agency through crossovers between social constructivism, evolutionary economics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:37:y:2020:i:3:p:342-368. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipsonea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.