TITLE:
Selectivities at Work: Climate Concerns in the Midst of Corporatist Interests. The Case of Austria
AUTHORS:
Ulrich Brand, Adam Pawloff
KEYWORDS:
Climate Policy, Corporatism, Social Partnership, EU Climate Targets, Renewable Energy Policy, Strategic Selectivities
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.9,
June
19,
2014
ABSTRACT: Despite legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and
good pre-conditions for progressive climate action, emissions in Austria are on
the rise. This article explores the reasons why climate change policy is so
ineffective in Austria. We show that the social partnership has contributed
significantly to the standstill in renewable energy production and the
rejection of more ambitious reduction targets concerning greenhouse gas
emissions, and consider the role of experts and expertise in climate change
policies. The ineffectiveness of climate policy in Austria is largely due to
corporatist actors who often act like an ex-ante filter or selective mechanism
for what is politically acceptable or possible and what is not. Climate change
is for the most part successfully kept off the political agenda and (climate
sceptical) politicization does not take place. Insights from the literature on
corporatism are enhanced by the concepts of strategic and epistemic selectivity
to analyse not only access to the state terrain but also the domination of
specific knowledge forms, problem perceptions, and narratives over others.