Navigating the Skies and the Seas : Organizational Response to the Transportation Sector´s Integration into the EU ETS

Sammanfattning

This thesis focuses on the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) and draws a comparison between the introduction of the aviation industry in 2012 and the maritime industry in 2024 into the EU ETS by analyzing industry resistance as portrayed in newspaper articles. In doing so, the thesis aims to identify whether there has been a shift in organizational resistance, and if so, what the change looks like. Using content analysis, we coded a time frame of three years surrounding each introduction event respectively, processing 134 articles for the aviation industry and 132 articles for the maritime industry. Building on the coding, a quantitative analysis was employed to identify shifts in portrayed patterns. The key result from our findings shows a notable shift in the portrayal of the EU ETS from resistance to compliance. Furthermore, we can see a change in focus on more environmental highlights as well as a relocated focus from critique aimed toward the entire system to a growing focus on its practical implementation. Drawing on institutional theory, we seek to explain the shift through growing legitimacy for climate policies resulting in an increase in the cost of resistance against said systems. Our data indicates that rising resistance costs not only diminish the occurrence of resistance but also significantly boost voiced compliance. From a practical standpoint, our findings suggest the need to include industries in the practical implementation processes to ease the shift towards a sustainable economy.