PHASING OUT COAL POWER GENERATION IN AUSTRALIA: POLICIES, CORPORATIONS AND UNIONS

Abstract

Reducing the level of greenhouse gases (GHGs) entering the atmosphere has become a priority for international agencies and national governments in their attempts to avoid costly and catastrophic climate change (Garnaut 2008; IPCC 2007; Stern 2007; World Bank 2010). As conditions of production enabling industrial activity to occur without due consideration of the social and environmental impacts loses its legitimacy, GHG-intensive industries are coming under mounting pressure to reduce emissions and adopt more environmentally sustainable organisational practices. Changes to the conditions of production have implications for business owners, workers, trade unions, and labour processes in GHG-intensive industries. Researchers have documented both supportive and oppositional responses to climate change mitigation policies from the organisational interests found in these ‘polluting’ industries (Aras and Crowther 2009; Blair and Hitchcock 2001; Browne 2002; Dunn 2003; Gelbspan 2004; Leggett 2001; Goodell 2007; Monbiot 2007). These observations contribute to theoretical and conceptual challenges for understanding and explaining the behaviour of the organisational actors in such industries. This paper discusses these theoretical challenges and empirically considers them in relation to corporate and union responses to attempts by Australian governments to phase out a proportion of the country's coal-fired electricity power generators. A critical realist perspective is presented as offering an alternative approach to conceptualising the dilemmas, constraints, and opportunities for corporate and trade union actors in contributing to action on climate change and identifying where their roles and capacities diverge.