Place, space, and scale: A meta-theoretical geographic framework for understanding industrial decarbonisation in Australia

The decarbonisation of heavy industries is a key challenge in ongoing climate action and policy. These industries, also referred to as “hard-to-abate”, require significant technological, economic and political support to align with net zero greenhouse gas transition pathways. The understanding of such sustainability transitions, generally, is a fertile area of scholarly research and practice, yet considerations for the geographic aspects of these processes are only more recently being brought to the forefront. Hence, the present work contributes to addressing this gap by adopting a composite, Human Geography-oriented lens to understand industrial decarbonisation processes in a case study country. We investigate industrial decarbonisation in Australia using Geography of Energy Transitions, Net Zero Sense of Place and Global Innovation Systems frameworks to understand the regional diversity within Australia of such decarbonisation processes. We identify twelve themes in our primary data consisting of stakeholder interviews and field work site visits, which are organised in four core thematic groups, namely place, space, scale and innovation systems. By assessing these themes through our composite lens consisting of twenty analytical dimensions stemming from the three analytical lenses, we find that the regional differences in industrial decarbonisation within Australia can be understood as one of six regional decarbonisation archetypes. This composite lens further enables strategic decision-making and policy action that is cognisant of local-context factors.