Article contents
The Decarbonization Bargain: How the Decarbonizable Sector Shapes Climate Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2024
Abstract
Political scientists conceptualize climate politics as a distributive struggle between emerging green and incumbent fossil coalitions. We argue that, even though this conceptualization is historically accurate, a dichotomous understanding no longer fully explains conflicts over climate policy. Importantly, it misses a group of industries that are central to recent policy progress: the decarbonizable sector. Decarbonizable industries, such as automakers or energy-intensive manufacturers, have long been part of fossil coalitions but can develop new sources of competitiveness through decarbonization. This makes them receptive to a bargain: agreeing to meet climate goals in exchange for policies that support their decarbonization, especially fiscal policies that partially fund or de-risk their business transitions. We establish this argument using an original measurement of the size of the decarbonizable sector and corroborate our findings through case studies of green spending policies in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
- Type
- Special Section: Addressing Transnational Challenges
- Information
- Perspectives on Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 4: Special Section: Migrant Acceptance and Inclusion , December 2024 , pp. 1203 - 1223
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Political Science Association
References
An addendum has been issued for this article:
- 4
- Cited by
Linked content
Please note an has been issued for this article.