IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwsre/sre-disc-2021_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impacts of climate change mitigation on work for the Austrian economy

Author

Listed:
  • Maja Hoffmann
  • Clive L. Spash

Abstract

Climate change mitigation – reducing emissions to zero and substituting fossil fuels through renewable energy within a maximum of two decades – entails major consequences for modern industrial societies and economies. Industrial societies are structurally centred and dependent on work, however, the implications for work are insufficiently studied. We conduct an empirical analysis of the impacts of climate mitigation on work across all sectors of the Austrian national economy. Using a mixed methods approach, we investigate all NACE-classified branches of economic activity, the respective number of persons employed, CO2 emissions, fossil fuel use, renewable energy potential, and the societal importance of work. We find that the impacts of climate mitigation on work are far more substantial than the literature usually suggests. Required are significant reductions of work across all sectors, and its structural reorganisation based on an altered energy basis. Yet, potential for deployment of renewable energy technologies is currently not given for many fields of work that are dependent on fossil fuels. While the category of essential work further indicates the kinds of work that may be prioritised in transformation processes, particularly problematic are those deemed both essential for society and incompatible with climate mitigation. The study provides an initial empirical basis for substantiated differentiation of kinds of work regarding these key aspects of climate change mitigation and structural transformation. It also points to the need for institutions to address these challenges and the problematic ways in which work is organised and held sacrosanct in modern society.

Suggested Citation

  • Maja Hoffmann & Clive L. Spash, 2021. "The impacts of climate change mitigation on work for the Austrian economy," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2021_10, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2021_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/sre-disc/sre-disc-2021_10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nabernegg, Stefan & Bednar-Friedl, Birgit & Muñoz, Pablo & Titz, Michaela & Vogel, Johanna, 2019. "National Policies for Global Emission Reductions: Effectiveness of Carbon Emission Reductions in International Supply Chains," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 146-157.
    2. Marshall Burke & Solomon M. Hsiang & Edward Miguel, 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7577), pages 235-239, November.
    3. Karl W. Steininger & Christian Lininger & Lukas H. Meyer & Pablo Muñoz & Thomas Schinko, 2016. "Multiple carbon accounting to support just and effective climate policies," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 35-41, January.
    4. Alice Larkin & Jaise Kuriakose & Maria Sharmina & Kevin Anderson, 2018. "What if negative emission technologies fail at scale? Implications of the Paris Agreement for big emitting nations," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 690-714, July.
    5. Kallis, Giorgos, 2011. "In defence of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 873-880, March.
    6. Garrett-Peltier, Heidi, 2017. "Green versus brown: Comparing the employment impacts of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fossil fuels using an input-output model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 439-447.
    7. Smetschka, Barbara & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Egger, Claudine & Haselsteiner, Edeltraud & Moran, Daniel & Gaube, Veronika, 2019. "Time Matters: The Carbon Footprint of Everyday Activities in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Lukas Hardt & John Barrett & Peter G. Taylor & Timothy J. Foxon, 2020. "Structural Change for a Post-Growth Economy: Investigating the Relationship between Embodied Energy Intensity and Labour Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, January.
    9. Max Åhman & Lars J. Nilsson & Bengt Johansson, 2017. "Global climate policy and deep decarbonization of energy-intensive industries," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 634-649, July.
    10. Mair, Simon & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2020. "A tale of two utopias: Work in a post-growth world," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Hardt, Lukas & Barrett, John & Taylor, Peter G. & Foxon, Timothy J., 2021. "What structural change is needed for a post-growth economy: A framework of analysis and empirical evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    12. Barth, Thomas & Jochum, Georg & Littig, Beate, 2019. "Transformation of what? Or: The socio-ecological transformation of working society," IHS Working Paper Series 1, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    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. Hoffmann, Maja & Pantazidou, Maro & Smith, Tone, 2023. "Critiques of work: The radical roots of degrowth," SocArXiv m9q2s, Center for Open Science.
    2. Gerold, Stefanie & Hoffmann, Maja & Aigner, Ernest, 2023. "Towards a critical understanding of work in ecological economics: A postwork perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    3. Bärnthaler, Richard & Gough, Ian, 2023. "Provisioning for sufficiency: envisaging production corridors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119420, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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. Gerold, Stefanie & Hoffmann, Maja & Aigner, Ernest, 2023. "Towards a critical understanding of work in ecological economics: A postwork perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Bohnenberger, Katharina, 2022. "Is it a green or brown job? A Taxonomy of Sustainable Employment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2022. "Greening work: labor market policies for the environment," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 347-368, May.
    4. Hardt, Lukas & Barrett, John & Taylor, Peter G. & Foxon, Timothy J., 2021. "What structural change is needed for a post-growth economy: A framework of analysis and empirical evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    5. Halliki Kreinin & Ernest Aigner, 2022. "From “Decent work and economic growth” to “Sustainable work and economic degrowth”: a new framework for SDG 8," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 281-311, May.
    6. Černý, Martin & Bruckner, Martin & Weinzettel, Jan & Wiebe, Kirsten & Kimmich, Christian & Kerschner, Christian & Hubacek, Klaus, 2024. "Global employment and skill level requirements for ‘Post-Carbon Europe’," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    7. Batini, Nicoletta & Di Serio, Mario & Fragetta, Matteo & Melina, Giovanni & Waldron, Anthony, 2022. "Building back better: How big are green spending multipliers?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    8. van den Bergh, Jeroen, 2023. "Climate policy versus growth concerns: Suggestions for economic research and communication," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    9. Isham, Amy & Mair, Simon & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Worker wellbeing and productivity in advanced economies: Re-examining the link," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    10. Joaquín Bernal-Ramírez & Jair Ojeda-Joya & Camila Agudelo-Rivera & Felipe Clavijo-Ramírez & Carolina Durana-Ángel & Clark Granger-Castaño & Daniel Osorio-Rodríguez & Daniel Parra-Amado & José Pulido &, 2022. "Impacto macroeconómico del cambio climático en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, issue 102, pages 1-62, July.
    11. Linsenmeier, Manuel & Shrader, Jeffrey G., 2023. "Global inequalities in weather forecasts," SocArXiv 7e2jf, Center for Open Science.
    12. Claudio Vitari, 2014. "Electronic currencies for purposive degrowth?," Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management hal-00975432, HAL.
    13. Luigi Aldieri & Jonas Grafström & Kristoffer Sundström & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2019. "Wind Power and Job Creation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Felix Windegger & Clive L. Spash, 2021. "Reconceptualising Freedom in the 21st Century: Degrowth vs. Neoliberalism," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2021_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    15. Wenju Cai & Yi Liu & Xiaopei Lin & Ziguang Li & Ying Zhang & David Newth, 2024. "Nonlinear country-heterogenous impact of the Indian Ocean Dipole on global economies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Lamperti, Francesco & Bosetti, Valentina & Roventini, Andrea & Tavoni, Massimo & Treibich, Tania, 2021. "Three green financial policies to address climate risks," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    17. Erica Perego & Lionel Fontagné & Gianluca Santoni, 2022. "MaGE 3.1: Long-term macroeconomic projections of the World economy," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 172, pages 168-189.
    18. Anca Elena Gheorghica, 2012. "The Emergence Of La Decroissance," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 4(1), pages 60-75, March.
    19. Otto Brøns-Petersen & Søren Havn Gjedsted, 2021. "Climate change and institutional change: what is the relative importance for economic performance?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 333-360, April.
    20. Martin Henseler & Ingmar Schumacher, 2019. "The impact of weather on economic growth and its production factors," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 417-433, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change mitigation; work; employment; fossil fuels; renewable energy; green jobs; just transition; degrowth; sectoral analysis; structural transformation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • L00 - Industrial Organization - - General - - - General
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • P18 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Energy; Environment
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2021_10. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/mlgd/ .

    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.