Brushing off the Carbon Dust for a Clean Industry
Brushing off the Carbon Dust for a Clean Industry
A Case Study of the German Industrial Decarbonization Discourse
This post is authored by Charlotte Hullmann, MSc. in Environment and Society Studies at the department of Geography, Planning and Environment. This blog summarizes the key findings she presented to the Wuppertal Institute as part of her master thesis.
How do trade associations, unions, NGOs, think tanks and other actors envision the transformation of the fossil-fuel intensive industry?
In my master thesis, I conducted a discourse network analysis to investigate this question for the case of Germany. Decarbonizing the industry would be an important transformation, as around 22 % of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany are due to the industrial sector. About three quarters of the industrial emissions originate from the basic material industry comprising the fossil fuel intensive steel, cement and chemical industry. At the same time, more than a quarter of the German GDP (2021) originates from the industrial sector. Hence, these industries, which also provide many jobs and tax income, are often seen as the backbone of the German economy. According to Prof. Dr. Stefan Lechtenböhmer, former head of the "Future Energy and Industrial Systems" department at the Wuppertal Institute, “Without the key industries, we will not manage the transformation.”
With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the passing of the Climate Action Law in Germany in 2019, the legal need for the basic material industry to decarbonize was established. Currently, a Hydrogen Strategy, an Industry Strategy and Climate Protection Contracts are being developed. These are to further ensure and enable the basic material industry in Germany to decarbonize.
A discursive analysis can be an important tool for studying power relations and likely decarbonization pathways of the industry. Moreover, discourse is often a forerunner of climate laws being passed (some researchers call this “institutionalization of discourse”). Interestingly, laws mentioning the idea of decarbonization have increased from zero as of 2012 to ten in 2022 in Germany. The fact that the term decarbonization is increasingly being used in laws indicates that discourses surrounding decarbonization are becoming institutionalized nowadays.
Research Design
My thesis was the first research aimed at providing a structured analysis of the discourse on industry decarbonization in Germany. Drawing on discourse analysis and the Multilevel-Perspectives framework developed by Frank Geels and colleagues, my research investigated the nature of storylines used in the discourse and their power in influencing the terms of the debate surrounding the transformation of the German fossil-fuel intensive industries. According to Prof. Dr. Maarten Hajer, who is renowned for his research on discourse analysis, a storyline is “a condensed statement summarizing complex narratives, used by people as ‘short hand’ in discussions”.
With this research I had the pleasure to learn how to use the Discourse Network Analyzer software developed by Philip Leifeld. I can very much recommend looking into this tool if you are interested in combining qualitative content analysis with actor network analysis. I made use of nine expert interviews to acquaint myself with the subject of research and to establish the base of storylines. Storylines were further elaborated on during the coding process. I covered a range of about 30 different actors’ perspectives by analyzing over 100 documents of various categories from the years 2012 to 2023.
Main Findings
What I expected to find were some storylines to be used much more prominently than others, as well as different groups of actors making use of different storylines. However, my research found that two thirds of all the storylines were used by more than two thirds of actors.
These dominant storylines were the following:
Following, I share with you some quotes of actors from my research who are making use of these storylines. The storyline on meeting the energy demand is that the government needs to ensure the industry’s energy demand to be met with renewable energies. The Green Party in Germany shares this storyline in the following quote:
“Indispensable for achieving a climate-friendly economy and society is the question of sufficient clean energy. It is not for nothing that the traffic light coalition is placing a focus of its political action on the accelerated expansion of renewable energies.” (2023).
Another often used storyline is the storyline of financial support, defined as the government/public needing to provide financial support to decarbonize the industry. The KEI Cottbus, which is a competence center on climate change mitigation in energy-intensive industries, uses this storyline saying:
“Since the entire society, including the industry, is held accountable for financial assistance (structural aid, industrial promotion, private capital) via the support, it also has a right to ensure that the transformation is tackled with all its might.” (2023).
Used by most actors is moreover the storyline of employment security. Fair, good quality employment should be ensured in Germany. This storyline is taken up for example in the whitepaper “Transformation at the turn of the times: Investing now in the future" (2022) written in collaboration with the WWF (NGO), Germanwatch (NGO), IGBCE (Trade Union), DNR (NGO). These organizations state:
“[...] We will reach the goal of climate neutrality by 2045 at the latest, together, without job losses and with a robust industrial base, with co-determined, collectively bargained jobs at modernized locations and in new production sectors.”.
Another most used storyline is the storyline of challenge. It implies that challenges need to be faced for the industry to become decarbonized. The newspaper “Welt” uses this storyline in the following quote:
“[...]as many industrial processes as possible are to be converted to green electricity according to the "Climate Protection Plan 2050". The only problem is that Germany cannot produce that much renewable energy itself. The German government's energy transition planners now openly admit this.” (2017).
In contrast to other research on discourse coalitions in Germany, for instance surrounding the phase-out of coal, my research did not identify antagonistic coalitions. Instead, one big discourse coalition emerged, the actors of which shared the same set of storylines. Thus, I did not identify framing struggles. As decisions on the transition path for Germany’s industry to decarbonize are still to be taken, the lack of discursive struggles has come to my surprise. Interestingly, the general sentiment on the upcoming industry transformation appears to be quite positive. Actors seem to have understood and accepted the need for the industry to decarbonize while focusing their discourse on communicating the conditions under which the transformation may be enabled and challenges to be addressed. The actors most active in the discourse are industry associations, the economic ministry, the environmental agency, political parties and scientific institutes.
Discussion
Based on these findings, the transformation seems rather uncontroversial. Nevertheless, the high level of agreement among the actors may actually be a result of the analytical level. When researching the transformation in related fields, such as with a focus on hydrogen or also at a regional level, less agreement and rather opposing storylines have been identified. Another possible explanation for the high level of agreement in the discourse may be the type of medium analyzed. By having used google search and LexisNexis, different types of documents, news and website articles were analyzed. The discourse delegitimizing the decarbonization may happen elsewhere. Relatedly, another influence resulting in the high discursive agreement may be that some actors have not or have only partially been covered in my analysis.
Implications and Call to Action
Key implications to be derived from this research are the following. Actors engaging in the transformation are well informed to know that a general agreement for the industry to decarbonize exists. This may lead to better cooperation for industry decarbonization.
Nevertheless, a critical implication to be taken from this research is that certain groups and interests are currently underrepresented in the discourse. For a just transformation to take place we need to ensure those who are currently underrepresented to be better integrated in the discourse.
This research has sparked my aspiration to stay involved by doing my PhD in this field. With potential further research I would like to go into the comparison of different policy instruments between countries enabling the transformation, but maybe also doing further research into power and dominance structures in the transformation. Very relevant to further research are in my opinion the implications of justice and societal acceptance in this field. We will see what the future will hold. There is much work still to be done for this transformation to take place. I hope this topic has sparked your interest. I am happy to connect and discuss ideas: You can reach me via LinkedIn or Email.
-Let’s get to work. -