The 1973 oil shock was the first energy crisis modern industrialized economies experienced. The disruption exposed the limitations of energy systems that rely on fossil fuels, creating a demand for experimentation of energy alternatives. In their book, Renewables: The Politics of a Global Energy Transition, Michaël Aklin, and Johannes Urpelainen provide a framework to analyze this transitionary period for selected countries, as well as the events that provoke the need for change in the form of the 1970s external shocks in oil prices. In this paper, for the first time, Aklin & Urpelainen's framework will be applied to Australia to help explain the "Australian Paradox." The Australian Paradox refers to the misalignment of Australia's climate change policy and exposure to climate change disruption. Though Australia is particularly vulnerable to climate change in several ways, the country is noted among rich industrialized nations for having done very little to promote alternative energies and reduce its carbon footprint. While the oil crises of the 1970s have catalyzed a search for alternative energy sources in some countries, it created a business opportunity for Australia in the form of expanding coal and gas exports, thereby further committing the country to carbon-cased energies. I conclude by reflecting on whether other forms of energy shocks could lead Australia into taking a more aggressive approach to climate change in the near future.

In 2022 the Russian invasion in Ukraine marked a turning point for global politics. To loosen dependency on Russian gas, the German government came to an agreement with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE. They decided to extend the lifespan of two lignite-powered plants while simultaneously accelerating the phasing out of coal from 2038 to 2030. However, this decision required the destruction of Lützerath, a village located in the planned lignite mining area. It is therefore referred to as the Lützerath decision. It drew massive criticism from climate movements, scientists and thousands of individuals, who claimed that this decision marks the end of the Paris Agreement, is a reinvestment in coal and a betrayal of future generations. The responsible politicians justified their decision and countered the protestors claims, arguing for a success for climate protection. The decision went ahead and Lützerath was evicted and destroyed in January 2023. This study has performed a Critical Discourse Analysis of speeches, interviews and press statements by key German political decision makers involved in order to investigate how the Lützerath decision was argued for, and in what ways the Lützerath discourse contributed to a hegemonic position of the fossil fuel sector in Germany. The results identified two main narratives: (1) the narrative of an unambiguous necessity of the coal underneath Lützerath as an instrument to withstand the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion; and (2) the narrative of the Lützerath decision as a big success for climate protection. Overall, I argue that the Lützerath decision has reinforced the hegemonic position of the fossil fuel industry and that the Lützerath decision has perpetuated carbon lock-ins in multiple ways. I concluded that the political discourse surrounding the Lützerath decision marks a instance for contemporary fossil fuel hegemony in Germany and stands in contrast to the urgent need for climate protection.

In the climate change discussion, there is a broad consensus about the importance of support from the financial industry when it comes to supporting changes towards a more sustainable society. However, investments in the society supporting a transition towards a low-carbon economy are still waiting to become unlocked. This thesis aims to provide an understanding of a possible sustainability transition towards a low-carbon economy within the Swedish financial industry. To fully understand a possible change, this study has investigated the dynamics of the financial industry from the perspective of a member-owned bank in Sweden. Hence this study seeks to explore a fundamental and comprehensive change, the theoretical framework of socio-technical transition and the multi-level perspective is used. This contributes to a vast mapping of the financial industry and a better understanding of the dynamics of social change and innovation, such as a low-carbon economy transition. To gain in-depth knowledge, a case study was performed. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews and data from the case company’s customer database. The carbon footprint of the case company bank’s loan portfolio was calculated and analysed through a sensitivity analysis. This was done in the aim to gain deeper insights about how actions from a bank could contribute to a low-carbon economy. The empirical findings in this thesis showed that a bank does have the ability and power to contribute to a lower carbon footprint in a bureaucratic and stable regime as the financial industry. However, this responsibility could be hard to put at a single actor. As the financial industry has a strong carbon lock-in, the approach has to be long-term. The actions that could enable a sustainability transition within the financial industry seems to be a collection of many different transition pathways. By remaining the landscape pressure and the development of niche innovations, a long-term sustainability transition seems imaginable. By collecting the forces of regulatory work along with collaboration among incumbent actors and increasing development of new low-carbon financial products, there is positive movement. With patience and an attitude change, the financial industry can see a sustainability transition in the horizon. / I diskussionen om klimatförändringar finns det en enighet om vikten av stöd från finansbranschen när det gäller förändringar mot ett mer hållbart samhälle. Investeringar i samhället som stöder en övergång till en koldioxidsnål ekonomi väntar dock fortfarande på att slå igenom. Denna uppsats har som syfte att förstå en möjlig hållbarhetsövergång till en koldioxidsnål ekonomi inom den svenska finansbranschen. För att förstå en möjlig förändring har denna undersökning granskat finansbranschens dynamik utifrån en svensk medlemsägd banks perspektiv. Då denna uppsats strävar efter att utforska en grundläggande och omfattande förändring, så har det teoretiska ramverket för socio-teknisk övergång och multi-nivåperspektivet används. Detta bidrar till en omfattande kartläggning av finansbranschen samt en bättre förståelse för dynamiken i socialförändring och innovation, så som en övergång till en mer koldioxidsnål ekonomi. För att få fördjupad kunskap inom ämnet så har en case-studie utförts. Både kvalitativa och kvantitativa data har samlats in genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer och data från case-företagetskunddatabas. Koldioxidavtrycket i case-företagets utlåningsportfölj beräknades och analyserades genom en känslighetsanalys. Detta gjordes i syfte att få djupare insikter om hur åtgärder från enbank skulle kunna bidra till en koldioxidsnål ekonomi. De empiriska resultaten i denna studie visade att en bank har förmågan och kraften att bidra till ett lägre koldioxidavtryck i en byråkratisk och stabil regim som finansindustrin. Detta ansvar kan dock vara svårt att lägga på en enskild aktör. Eftersom finansbranschen idag har investeringar i koldioxidtunga aktiviteter måste tillvägagångssättet vara långsiktigt. De åtgärder som kan möjliggöra en hållbar övergång inom finansbranschen verkar vara en samling av många olika övergångsbanor. Genom att ha fortsatttryck från landskaps-nivån och en fortsatt utveckling av nisch-innovationer verkar en långsiktig hållbarhetsövergång tänkbar. Genom en enad kraft, samarbete mellan etablerade aktörer och ökad utveckling av nya finansiella produkter med låg koldioxidutsläpp, verkar en förändring möjlig. Med tålamod och en attitydförändring kan finansindustrin se en hållbarhetsövergång i horisonten.

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