Challenging the hegemonic regime of the petroleum state? The governmental and public discourses on fossil-fuel production and climate risk in Norway
Doctoral thesis
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2024Metadata
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Challenging the hegemonic regime of the petroleum state? The governmental and public discourses on fossil-fuel production and climate risk in Norway by Tine Sizov Handeland, Stavanger : University of Stavanger, 2024 (PhD thesis UiS, no. 803)Abstract
From 2011 to 2018, the Norwegian government justifies continued Norwegian oil and gas production based on resource efficiency. Low-carbon oil and gas production is perceived as an important competitive advantage and vital to ensure a place in a carbon-constrained future. In the same period, fundamental changes occurred in the international climate regime. This deeply affected the construction of the Norwegian public discourse on fossil-fuel production and climate risk in the period from 2013 to mid-March 2019. Through stressing financial implications of petroleum-dependency in an increasingly carbon-restricted world, the environmental NGO’s in Norway helped create grounds for a broader political debate around the future of the Norwegian welfare state. Questions around how Norway ought to transition from a period marked by a high degree of petroleum-dependency to a future where the world increasingly becomes concerned and governed by safe-guarding the climate, has led to clear changes in the Norwegian identity as a petroleum nation.
In 1991, the Norwegian government introduced a carbon tax on petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf, and in 2008 the Norwegian petroleum sector became part of the European Union Emission Trading System. Thus, the petroleum industry has a history of being subjected to climate policy measures by the Norwegian government. However, the previous decade has led to clear changes in what measures are seen as both valid and necessary to prepare Norway for a low-carbon future. The anticipation for stricter climate policies worldwide due to the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the increasing involvement of business and financial sector, and new scientific data on how to limit global warming to 1.5°C, are all examples of how changes in the international climate regime has influenced the Norwegian Public and governmental discourse. Thus, political debate on Norwegian petroleum policy has become increasingly interconnected with the topic of Norwegian climate policy. Ultimately, this has created new opportunities to raise concern and collaborate on providing knowledge on financial climate risk for the industry, government, and environmental NGO’s. For the Norwegian petroleum industry, it is predominantly financial climate risk (as opposed to physical climate risk) that has been the most important to address in the public eye. It has been argued by the government, the industry, the environmental movement, and financial experts that the risk of declining oil price due to more stringent climate policy measures, needs to be addressed. However, as this thesis Points out, the actors vary to the extent to how much they emphasise that this is a threat to the Norwegian welfare state.
This study uses a theoretical framework consisting of discourse theory, rhetorical concepts, and green state theory to address these changes. Discourse theory is used to reconstruct and analyse the frames used in statements from governmental documents and news articles. The result of the analysis reconstructing the governmental discourse is presented in article 1, where discourse theory is combined with state imperatives (green state theory) and the identification of energy policy goals. The main finding presented in this article is that the core framing of the Norwegian petroleum policy remained predominantly stable throughout the period of study. By emphasising that there will still be a need for oil and gas in a carbon-constrained future, and that Norway will be able to compete internationally under such conditions, the government strengthens the Norwegian petroleum industry’s licence to operate. Article 2 addresses the ‘evolutionary model’ of the green state (Hausknost 2020) that builds on the understanding of Dryzek et al. (2002; 2003) on how to bridge the gap to a low-emission society. The article’s contribution is three-folded. First, statements uttered by the environmental movement is analysed, reconstructing the frames used in relation to investments in fossil-fuel production. Second, the frames are incorporated using existing green state theory to validate if the evolutionary model can provide a possible route to a low-carbon society. However, doing so will require a restructuring of the state imperatives; legitimation and economic growth, by closing the gap between ecology and financial interest through emphasising climate-related Financial risks. Finally, the article presents a figure that combines green state theory with discourse theory, summarizing the approach that illustrates that the evolutionary model can be used as a model to solve the integration of state imperatives (figure 3).
Article 3 aims to make a theoretical contribution by applying discourse and rhetoric theory to explain an understudied phenomenon identified as the rhetorical-political strategy of inversion. The counter-hegemonic movement stresses that the Norwegian welfare state will make the best preparations for the future by replacing investments in fossil-fuel production with green investments in renewable energy and low-emission technology. As such, the counter-movement challenges the logic of fossil-fuel investments financially securing the Norwegian welfare state, inverting the pro-fossil fuel investment system in the moment of utterance.
Description
PhD thesis in Social Sciences
Has parts
Paper 1: Handeland, T.S.; Langhelle, O. (2021) A Petrostate’s Outlook on Low-Carbon Transitions: The Discursive Frames of Petroleum Policy in Norway. Energies, 14(17), 5411. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175411Paper 2: Handeland, T. S. (2022). Greening the Norwegian petrostate or hitting the ‘glass ceiling of transformation’? The environmental social movement and public discourse on climate risk [Unpublished]
Paper 3: Handeland, T. S., & Sunnercrantz, L. (2023). Redescribing fossil-fuel investments: how hegemony challengers ‘invert’arguments in the Norwegian public discourse on climate risk. Critical Discourse Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2023.2271577
Publisher
University of Stavanger, NorwaySeries
PhD thesis UiS;;803