# How Do German Manufacturers React to the Increasing Societal Pressure for Decarbonisation?
## 1 Introduction  
Facing the challenges to keep global warming below 1.5 \({}^{\circ}\)C by 2050, the so-called German \"Climate Cabinet\" negotiated a climate package that added sufficient new substance to existing agreements to get the opportunity to address the United Nations General Assembly in lieu of the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019. Publicly challenged for its ambition and doubtful impact, the package finally passed in late 2019 under several conditions, including increasing the proposed CO\({}_{2}\)-levy starting in January 2021 to 25 EUR per ton of CO\({}_{2}\)-equivalents (CO\({}_{2}\)-eq.) emitted [1; 2; 3]. Simultaneously, the UN Summit led to pledges by the business and financial sector, as well as regional and country players, to reach net-zero carbon (reducing carbon emissions and levelling residual carbon emissions through compensation) by 2050. A third of the global banking sector pledged to work to achieve the Paris Agreement goals, and companies with a capitalisation of 2 trillion euros united to commit to manage their companies to achieve climate targets [4; 5]. In awareness of the relevance of both the climate package and the UN Climate Action Summit and their likely impact on the industrial sector, along with the frequent referrals bypolitics on the alleged position and situation of industry towards both the climate package requirements and decarbonisation, the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production (EEP) chose to tailor its October/November 2019 data collection for the Energy Efficiency Index of German Industry (EEI), to capture the actual opinion of the German manufacturing industry on these issues [6] at the height of the discussion and public attention, and ahead of the United Nations World Climate Conference COP25 in Madrid. In this paper, which builds and extends on a conference paper presented at the ECEEE Industrial Efficiency 2020: Decarbonise Industry! Conference [7], we focus on the EEIs outcomes in relation to decarbonisation. The importance of decarbonisation of manufacturing industries has been highlighted by scholars for several years [8; 9]. Decarbonising industries is a complex societal problem and studies on this issue have been accumulating in recent years. [PERSON] et al. [10] distinguish between three approaches to the study of industrial decarbonisation, namely energy system analysis (1), policy studies (2), and (3) sustainability transition research. Energy system analysis (1) is about providing a technical understanding of what is feasible and technically required to achieve certain predefined goals and relating this to the sociotechnical context and policy requirements [10]. Scenario studies [11], technology potential studies [12], and studies on barriers or drivers for energy efficiency measures [13] are typical of this approach. Policy studies (2) are devoted to developing and examining policy processes and instruments [10; 14]. Characteristic for this field are, for example, studies on energy efficiency programmes [15] or policy pathways to net-zero emissions industries [16]. On the other hand, sustainability transition research (3) draws attention to conceptualising, explaining, and governing sociotechnical transitions towards sustainability [10; 17]. In contrast to energy system analysis, sustainability research expands its perspective beyond technology diffusion to behavioural, institutional cultural changes. Typical for this strand of research is the assumption that decarbonisation is not a mere question of the availability of technology or individual choices. For [PERSON] [18] (p. 372), for example, culture and its institutions are the \"most surreptitious, yet powerful\" barriers to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Similarly, [PERSON] [19] emphasises the institutional and cultural context of decision-making in industrial organisations, whereas [PERSON] and [PERSON] [20] underline the importance of corporate culture for the efficacy of measures within industrial enterprises.