State-orchestrated green path development? Industrial decarbonisation in Teesside and the Humber

Abstract The challenge of industrial decarbonisation is compounded in localities and regions where carbon-based path dependency coheres multiple sectors and path dynamics. Framed within a Geographical Political Economies (GPE) perspective of new energy spaces, this paper develops an enriched green path development framework to explore opportunities for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) solutions within two of the UK's most carbon-intensive industrial regions, Teesside and the Humber. Attention focuses on the struggles of actors in carbon-dependent regions to initiate CCS pathways, the multiple forms of agency involved and the capacity of the state to configure and orchestrate energy-related “regional opportunity spaces”.