Discontinuing coal in Germany - Keeping the forest above to phase out the coal below: An explorative study of the negotiation process in terms of interests, conflicts and coalitions.

In the wake of sustainability transitions and increasing attention for climate change issues, the discontinuation of emission-intensive socio-technical systems like lignite coal becomes increasingly prevalent. The German coal phase-out provides for a timely and currently ongoing example, that can be explored with a governance of discontinuation perspective. While the overarching phenomenon of the coal phase-out is set into context, a framing analysis is conducted for the local case of the Hambach forest to gain insights on actors’ interests, strategies and dynamics regarding the negotiation process. Data is derived from primary and secondary sources, primarily from actors’ statements from the respective websites. This explorative single case study is applied to conduct an in-depth analysis of the case with the help of a grounded theory approach to generate findings relevant for the research field of the governance of discontinuation. The agency-view enables the construction of three framing types that were most prevalent in the negotiation process: responsibility allocation, a lose-gain nexus and the creation of dependencies. The process has been shaped by conflictual interactions of interest groups emerging from a cluster of actors who share similar interests and engage in similar framing struggles to advance their respective interests.