Greening of regional industrial paths and the role of sectoral characteristics: A study of the maritime and petroleum sectors in an Arctic region

Recent studies on regional industrial path development call for new perspectives and studies of how a region’s endogenous and exogenous processes (e.g. networks, capital, knowledge) influence its industries, and more recently, the greening of those industries. To this end, recent research has focused on increasing our understanding of the roles of firm and non-firm agency and multi-scalar dynamics (e.g. value chains, national and global regulations). However, the literature has naturally tended to focus more on territorial dynamics (e.g. agglomerations, clusters, regional innovation systems) than on the role of sectoral characteristics to explain regional industrial path development and regional industry greening. To address this, we have developed a framework built on the sectoral innovation systems literature to provide a better explanation of the role of sectoral characteristics in regional industrial path development. We argue herein that the greening of regional industrial paths can be strongly influenced by sectoral characteristics (e.g. standards, markets, technological solutions, laws, regulations), and not merely by territorial characteristics. Our theory-based argument is practically exemplified by an investigation of how a new green technology, onshore power supply, has influenced the greening of two industries (i.e. maritime and petroleum) in the rural Arctic region of northern Norway.

The UK and German Low-Carbon Industry Transitions from a Sectoral Innovation and System Failures Perspective

Industrial processes are associated with high amounts of energy consumed and greenhouse gases emitted, stressing the urgent need for low-carbon sectoral transitions. This research reviews the energy-intensive iron and steel, cement and chemicals industries of Germany and the United Kingdom, two major emitting countries with significant activity, yet with different recent orientation. Our socio-technical analysis, based on the Sectoral Innovation Systems and the Systems Failure framework, aims to capture existing and potential drivers of or barriers to diffusion of sustainable industrial technologies and extract implications for policy. Results indicate that actor structures and inconsistent policies have limited low-carbon innovation. A critical factor for the successful decarbonisation of German industry lies in overcoming lobbying and resistance to technological innovation caused by strong networks. By contrast, a key to UK industrial decarbonisation is to drive innovation and investment in the context of an industry in decline and in light of Brexit-related uncertainty.