Inequalities in green transitions: The neglected role of collective infrastructures and institutions

Description

Inequality is becoming an increasingly explosive issue in the debate on climate protection. Sociological research on the distributional aspects of climate protection and its social and political consequences is, however, still in its infancy. Building on an argument by Sighart Neckel, we extend the sociological debate on the issue by discussing infrastructures as (in)equality mechanisms and, thus, as barriers or enablers for effective climate action. We develop this theoretical argument by comparing the stagnant “Wärmewende” in Germany with the successful decarbonization of domestic energy use in Denmark through a historical analysis and the consequences of the German pathway through a discourse analysis of the heated German debate on the so-called “heating law” in 2023. We argue that not only individual financial or fiscal instruments such as levies or compensation payments, but also the extent to which supply infrastructures are operated for profit or for the common good and how strongly they are tied to fossil interests, determines whether a just decarbonization is possible.

Period	17 Dec 2024
Event title	ICAE Research Seminar
Event type	Other
Location	AustriaShow on map