Negotiating Industrial Decarbonization: State-Industry Relations and the Role of Sectoral Production Structures

Stephan Stuckmann

The transition of advanced capitalist economies from fossil to low-carbon modes of production necessarily involves energy- and carbon-intensive industries. Whereas these industries were a major roadblock for climate politics in the past, they now increasingly negotiate with states over transition pathways. However, there is substantial variation between countries and across industries in terms of green industrial policy, technological restructuring, and emissions reductions. Under which conditions, then, can negotiations over industrial decarbonization be successful, for which sectors, and why? This dissertation project studies Germany as a paradigmatic case and compares the chemical and steel industries, which continue to occupy central positions in Germany’s export economy. It analyzes the interaction between the material conditions of concrete transition pathways and the state-industry relations within which these pathways are negotiated. The project thereby aims to contribute to an understanding of contested transition processes and, further, of how state and industry roles in political economies are changing against the background of scarce energy and fiscal resources.