ALBERT

Description: Die Bundesregierung hat den Kohleausstieg bis zum Jahr 2038 beschlossen und beschleunigt so die Transformation in den Kohleregionen. Die Ausgangslagen für den Wandel in den Revieren und umliegende Gemeinden der Lausitz und des Rheinlands sind dabei sehr unterschiedlich. In beiden Regionen stehen Politik, Zivilgesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft vor der Aufgabe, Lösungspfade und Transformationskorridore zu finden, die ökologisch verantwortlich, sozial gerecht, wirtschaftlich vielversprechend und demokratisch getragen sind. Das IASS Potsdam veranstaltete im Frühjahr 2020 gemeinsam mit dem Kulturwissenschaftlichen Institut Essen einen Workshop, um demokratiepolitische Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede im Strukturwandel der Braunkohleregionen herauszuarbeiten. Die Zwischenergebnisse werden in dieser Studie dargestellt.

Description: For a long time, Germany was regarded as a pioneer in climate policy. Recently, conflicts have intensified over the phase-out of coal from the energy sector. In 2020, the German Bundestag created the legal basis for a coal phase-out by 2038, subsequently revised to 2030 by the new coalition government of September 2021. This article analyzes the recent controversies from a political-economy perspective and shows the interrelationships and tensions between capitalism, democracy, and sustainability within Germany. In particular, the rise of right-wing populist attitudes opposing a coal phase-out, highlights the conflictual character and the social embeddedness of sustainability politics. The analysis of the conflicts surrounding the coal phase-out makes it possible to situate the future of energy supply in the overall societal context.

Description: The IASS – and the research project Co-creation and Contemporary Policy Advice, in particular – aim to support policymakers in their efforts to address complex societal challenges within the context of a broad transformation towards sustainability. These challenges are interwoven with other issues and embedded within dynamic contexts that are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, making it difficult to develop a unified approach to their resolution. In response to this, this IASS Discussion Paper presents a model for the development of co-creative policy advice that is intended to support actors from policymaking and public administration in addressing such complex challenges. The primary goal of the process outlined here is the development, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders, of an in-depth understanding of a specific challenge – before appropriate strategies and measures for its resolution are put in place. The insights gained in this scoping process shape the development of tailored solution generation processes and the allocation of public procurement contracts for the implementation of societal transformation processes. In this approach, the policy advice process begins well before potential solutions are developed and presented to policymakers and administrative bodies. Rather, this model responds to the need to develop an integrated understanding of societal challenges in close cooperation with the people and institutions affected on the ground before public procurement processes for their resolution are launched.

Description: Dies ist ein Bericht über eine Workshopreihe, die das Institut für transformative Nachhaltigkeitsforschung (IASS) Potsdam gemeinsam mit den Auszubildenden („Azubis“) des Braunkohleunternehmens LEAG in den Ausbildungsstätten Jänschwalde und Schwarze Pumpe durchgeführt hat. Ziel der Workshops war es, dass die Jugendlichen ihre eigene Rolle und ihre Handlungsmöglichkeiten im Lausitzer Strukturwandel besser verstehen und wiedergeben lernen, so dass sie sich selbstbewusst und sinnvoll in der betrieblichen und politischen Öffentlichkeit einbringen können.

Description: This editorial to the special issue: Transregional Configurations of Just Energy Transitions explores how discourses on justice are interrelated and influence transformation paths at different levels of society. We propose a spatial perspective that puts energy transitions and place-based research into context. For many years, discussions about the transformation of the energy sector focused on the climatological necessity of phasing out fossil fuels and on the technical and economic feasibility of doing so. In this special issue, we aim to reverse this logic: phasing out fossil fuels has become feasible, but phasing out the political, cultural, and social legacy of fossil fuel is a prerequisite for a just transition. The collection of articles contributes to place-based research, focusing on peripheral and fossil fuel producing regions in the global North and South. We also broaden the relational perspective on regional energy transitions by closely linking spatial and moral dimensions. The articles and this editorial show that the emergence of a region as a political arena or even as an institutional actor in climate and energy policy coincides with spatially defined (in)justice claims. In practical terms, this also means that a broader range of justice claims and regional spaces must be critically examined and incorporated into the design of energy transformations.

Description: Die Legitimität von Expert*innenkommissionen in Demokratien ist stets umstritten, weil Aushandlungsprozesse verlagert werden, die eigentlich in demokratisch legitimierten Gremien stattfinden sollten. Zugleich wird ihre Problemlösungsfähigkeit häufig gelobt. Die bisherige politikwissenschaftliche Forschung zur Legitimität von Expert*innenkommissionen konzentriert sich vor allem auf eine Beurteilung ihrer Funktionen im politischen System sowie auf einzelne Aspekte oder Dimensionen von Legitimität. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird ein umfassendes Kriteriensystem zur Beurteilung der Legitimität der Kommission Wachstum, Strukturwandel und Beschäftigung („Kohlekommission“, KWSB) entwickelt. Es beinhaltet die Input- (Inklusivität, politische Verantwortlichkeit), Throughput- (Accountability im Prozess, Transparenz, deliberative Arbeitsqualität, Inklusivität und Offenheit) und Outputlegitimität (Problemlösungsfähigkeit und Gemeinwohlorientierung). Dabei wird die Legitimität der KWSB auf Basis von Dokumentenanalysen und Interviews mit 14 der 28 Kommissionsmitglieder bzw. deren Stellvertreter*innen beurteilt. Durch die Kommission wurde ein Vorschlag entwickelt, wie ein schrittweiser Kohleausstieg mit erheblichen Unterstützungsleistungen für die betroffenen Regionen, Beschäftigten und Unternehmen aussehen kann. Über den gesamten Kommissionsprozess sind allerdings intransparente Verantwortlichkeiten, eine Privilegierung der Positionen einzelner Mitglieder sowie ein Ergebnis zu bemängeln, dessen Gemeinwohlorientierung wegen der hohen Kosten des Beschlusses und der geringen klimapolitischen Ambition umstritten ist. Zum Schluss des Aufsatzes wird diskutiert, wie die Legitimität vergleichbarer Kommissionen durch Regulierung sowie direktdemokratische Elemente erhöht werden könnte.

Description: The legitimacy of expert commissions in democracies is always disputed, given that negotiation processes are shifted that should actually take place in democratically legitimized bodies. At the same time, their problem-solving capacity is often appreciated. Previous political science research on the legitimacy of expert commissions has focused primarily on an assessment of their functions in the political system and on individual aspects or dimensions of legitimacy. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive set of criteria for assessing the legitimacy of the Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment (“Coal Commission”, KWSB). It includes input (inclusiveness, political accountability), throughput (accountability in the process, transparency, deliberative quality of work, inclusiveness and openness) and output legitimacy (problem-solving capacity and public good orientation). The legitimacy of the KWSB is assessed on the basis of document analyses as well as interviews with 14 of the 28 commission members or their deputies. The commission developed a proposal for a gradual coal phase-out with considerable support for the affected regions, employees and companies. Throughout the entire commission process, however, non-transparent responsibilities and a privileging of the positions of individual members should be critized. The orientation of the result toward the common good is controversial due to the high costs of the decision and the low climate policy ambition. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the legitimacy of comparable commissions could be increased through regulation as well as elements of direct democracy.

Description: Climate change mitigation triggers both spatial and moral complexities, as demonstrated by the contentious issue of phasing out coal power. The success of the Paris Agreement depends on, among other things, the acceptability of climate policy measures and thus, from a moral perspective, on the ability to organize transition processes in ways that do not damage the livelihoods of workers, communities, and entire regions. Spatially, the unequal distributions of burdens and advantages of both climate change and respective mitigation measures provoke struggles over their legitimacy in contexts ranging from local to global. Phasing out coal mining and the respective power generation capacity thus triggers processes of structural transformation that cut across geographic scales, vertical levels of policy and politics, as well as sectoral boundaries. In light of the urgency of the climate crisis, countries such as Canada and Germany have established stakeholder-driven commissions to develop proposals for just transition pathways for phasing out coal production and consumption. We argue that these commissions are arenas in which spatial, moral, and sectoral (re-)negotiations materialize. Comparing the Canadian and German stakeholder commissions through expert interviews with their members, the article traces how governments use commissions to legitimize their transition policies. Expectations at different levels and from different actors in turn place commission members under pressure to justify their involvement and the outputs of the commissions. We find that the Canadian task force showed greater commitment to collecting and reflecting the needs of communities in its coal regions, and to communicating these to the federal government. In the German coal commission, legitimation strategies focused mainly on a broad representation of interests, and on government spending for affected regions, workers, and industries. In that case, a compromise was reached that satisfied most, but not all, of the diverse requirements.