Phase-Out Politics and Policies for Decarbonization

Abstract

Phase-out policies have a long history in the environmental domain as a policy approach for catalyzing the progressive downscaling of the production and use of unsustainable substances, technologies and practices. Phasing out fossil fuels is key to limiting global warming to below 2°C (IPCC, 2022) in line with the Paris Agreement. COP28 in 2023 adopted language on "transitioning away from fossil fuels", many countries have adopted domestic phase-out policies and, recently, phase-out clubs, groups of states with a shared phase-out commitment, have emerged in global climate governance. There is growing scholarly attention to phase-out policies, but the extant literature focuses mainly on single country or industry case studies in OECD countries. Knowledge is lacking on phase-out policies in non-OECD countries, on the supply side of phase-out, on which phase-out approaches are applied for which sectors as well as on phase-out policies adopted within the context of global climate governance. Achieving a better understanding requires a comparative analysis of phase-out policies within and across sectors, systematic attention to interaction among varied policy instruments, policies in different domains as well as different geographical regions. This panel seeks to contribute to a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of ongoing fossil fuel phase-out efforts in energy transitions and decarbonization more generally. Concretely, we look to produce insights into the defining characteristics of different kinds of phase-out policies and patterns in different parts of the world and at different governance levels. IPCC. (2022). Climate change 2022: Mitigation of climate change (Working Group III). https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FullReport.pdf

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