Aviation exceptionalism, fossil fuels and the state

Vera Huwe, Debbie Hopkins and Giulio Mattioli

Review of International Political Economy, 2025, vol. 32, issue 1, 76-100

Abstract: While states have accelerated the energy transition in some sectors, they have also obstructed fossil phase-out in other sectors. Aviation has an outsized and rapidly growing climate impact, and associated policy decisions have perpetuated fossil fuel use. Since aviation is dependent on high energy density that only fossil fuels can (currently) provide, the industry faces fundamental constraints to green its capital. Yet, the industry does not operate in isolation. In this paper, we show how the state performs a variety of roles that benefit from and support aviation, creating conflicts with the state’s climate targets. We analyze state–industry relations as they relate to the emergence of air transport and its ongoing carbon-dependent formulations. Combining a relational account of the state and the method of critical problem-solving, we characterize the roles of the state vis-à-vis the industry as owner, sponsor and customer and point to strategies of how the associated capacities can be leveraged to drive fossil phase-out in aviation. Since a rapid and comprehensive phase-out of fossil fuels is required for climate stabilization, we argue that political economists can make important contributions by focusing on the socio-material relations that constrain state agency to phase-out fossil fuels in specific sectors.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2024.2384925

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