a b s t r a c tThis paper studies how political conditions and external events influenced the rise and fall of offshore wind on the political agenda in Norway between 2005 and 2012. In this sense, the paper contributes to recent debates about the role of politics in sustainable transitions. Key findings are that changes in government posts combined with a need for the offshore petroleum industry to diversify created favourable conditions for offshore wind. However, offshore wind as a solution to articulated problems was insufficiently developed when the window of opportunity opened up. The analysis then shows how a recovery in the offshore petroleum industry and new changes inside government closed the window of opportunity. The paper concludes that we should attend more to the interests of government actors, and conflicts inside government, in the analysis of energy transitions.

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This paper employs the concept of policy networks to study how interest groups and actors compete over the influence of energy and climate policy. It is argued that the creation of learning arenas is critical for the development of immature technologies. The paper then analyses two large efforts to secure state funding of large-scale demonstration projects for offshore wind and carbon capture and storage technology in Norway. The paper describes a range of similarities between these two technologies in terms of scale, maturity, and costs, and in the way they represent possible solutions to the problem of climate change. However, the paper also describes enormous differences in government support towards full-scale demonstration. These differences are then explained in the analysis, which shows how different network structures facilitate different levels of access to the policy making process. The paper provides insights into how the interplay between state interests, political party strategies and the interests of firms influence the potency for solutions tied to climate and energy problems. The paper therefore contributes to the discourse on the role of politics in sustainability transitions.Offshore wind energy particularly when rapid change is required (Smits, Kuhlmann, & Teubal 2010, p. 420). These spaces can function as learning arenas where technologies can improve shielded from mainstream market selection (Geels 2005, p. 684). Such learning arenas are unlikely to develop for immature technologies without state support (Mazzucato 2013). Thus, the ability to influence institutions is important for the improvement of new renewable energy technologies. Such influence will often be exerted through socalled advocacy coalitions or policy networks that share certain common beliefs and visions for a given technology (Jacobsson & Lauber 2006). How different actors are able to shape the selection environment in which they operate through lobbying and coalition building is however still under explored in much research on sustainability transitions and the build-up of new renewable energy technologies (Kern 2015, p. 68;Markard, Suter, & Ingold 2015). Coalition building involves not only firms but also state actors as well as political parties and individuals. Thus, to better understand the political conditions for certain policies, the analysis needs to include the interests and participation of state and political actors.The purpose of this paper is to specifically investigate how policy networks are formed and how these policy networks influence the possibility for actors to participate in the policy process. This can help us understand how relations and negotiations between different types of both state and nonstate actors influence the governance of science and technology. The paper thus contributes to recent and important debates concerning the role of politics in the formation of policies for sustainability transitions (Farla et al.In the following section, I argue that learning arenas are important for the succe...

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Reorientation of fossil fuel industries towards renewable energy, and the role of changes in organizational environment underlying such processes, have not featured strongly in the study of sustainable energy transitions. We contribute to this important policy issue with a case study of the Norwegian oil and gas industry and its engagement in offshore wind power. We study how the engagement has changed during the period 2007-2016, and whether these changes correspond with developments in the industry's task and institutional environments.Our study reveals that despite relatively stable institutional environment and continuous growth in offshore wind market over the last decade, the oil and gas industry's engagement has fluctuated over time. These fluctuationsgreen flingstook place during two market downturns in the oil and gas market, while during an oil and gas boom the industry reoriented back to this core market. Our results draw attention to the potential importance of market changes for reorientation of fossil fuel industries towards renewable energy. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study for policies seeking to support sustainable energy transitions.

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