State capacities for decarbonization: from investable transitions to green transformations

Researchers increasingly invoke the concept of ‘state capacity’ to analyze how and when states pursue decarbonization and renewable energy policies. Drawing on a review of recent climate governance and green industrial policy scholarship, this article develops a framework of five state capacities – planning, disciplinary, strategic, legitimation, and adaptive – to capture the distinctive yet interrelated demands of economy-wide decarbonization governance. The framework identifies potential policy elements, institutional structures, and capabilities that underpin each capacity across diverse national and sectoral contexts. It offers researchers and practitioners a structured lens for analyzing state action that captures the multi-dimensional, relational, and contested nature of state capacity, as well as a methodological basis that moves research beyond a reliance on limited, non-comparable observations. The framework is particularly relevant for researchers interested in how the development of state capacities is itself conditioned by domestic factors, geoeconomic competition, and the global political economy.