Coal-fuelled power generation is the single largest source of CO₂ emissions worldwide. In order to fulfil the 2016 Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the increase in global average temperature to below 2℃, over 80% of the world’s coal reserves must remain unused. Therefore, many countries are considering adopting policies to reduce the use of coal and its mining. This project aims to reveal why some countries have opted for phase-out policies, whereas some others have not even included the issue on their political agenda.
These differences cannot be explained only by country-level factors, such as the economic development level, coal reserves, trade patterns or the number of interest groups advocating for environmental protection. This project thus pays attention to the interests, goals and activities of different policy actors.
The project asks the following questions:
– What are the key energy stakeholders’ interests related to coal and what coalitions emerge among them
– Why are some actors more influential than others in translating their interests into policy outcomes?
– What lessons can countries draw from coal policy trajectories in other countries?
Conceptually, the project will first bring the relevant theories from different disciplines together. Subsequently, the research team will analyze the links among energy stakeholders’ resource endowments, their policy-related activities and the evolution of discourses around coal energy.
These analyses include a special emphasis on the role and the abilities of local resource -production industries, their positioning in global resource trade and their employees.
Aya Kachi
Coordinator
University of Basel
Adrian Rinscheid
Co-Coordinator
University of St. Gallen
Mert Duygan
Principal Member
University of Basel
Fintan Oeri
Principal Member
University of Basel
Tabea Baumgartner
Principal Member
University of Basel
Thiago Dumont Oliveira
Principal Member
University of Basel
Roman Stutzer
Principal Member
University of Basel
Heinrich Wild
Principal Member
University of St. Gallen
Daniel Rosenbloom
Principal Member
University of Toronto
James Meadowcroft
Associated Member
Carleton University, Canada
Quynh Nguyen
Associated Member
Australian National University
Karoline Rogge
Associated Member
University of Sussex, UK
Volker Schneider
Associated Member
University of Konstanz, Germany
Sonia Seneviratne
Associated Member
ETH Zurich
Florian Weiler
Associated Member
University of Basel
Swiss Network for
International Studies