Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Political Economy of the Low-Carbon Transition: Pathways Beyond Techno-Optimism 1st Edition Peadar Kirby full chapter instant download
The Political Economy of the Low-Carbon Transition: Pathways Beyond Techno-Optimism 1st Edition Peadar Kirby full chapter instant download
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-political-economy-of-
hydropower-in-southwest-china-and-beyond-1st-edition-jean-
francois-rousseau/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-political-economy-of-food-
system-transformation-pathways-to-progress-in-a-polarized-world-
resnick/
https://ebookmass.com/product/waste-to-resource-system-design-
for-low-carbon-circular-economy-siming-you/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-political-economy-of-normative-
trade-power-europe-1st-ed-edition-arlo-poletti/
The Political Economy of Automotive Industrialization
in East Asia 1st Edition Richard F. Doner
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-political-economy-of-
automotive-industrialization-in-east-asia-1st-edition-richard-f-
doner/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-rise-of-empires-the-political-
economy-of-innovation-1st-ed-edition-sangaralingam-ramesh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/political-economy-of-
capitalisms-1st-edition-robert-boyer/
https://ebookmass.com/product/new-perspectives-on-the-history-of-
political-economy-1st-edition-robert-fredona/
https://ebookmass.com/product/statecraft-and-the-political-
economy-of-capitalism-1st-edition-scott-g-nelson/
International Political Economy Series
Series Editor
Timothy M. Shaw
Visiting Professor
University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Emeritus Professor
University of London, UK
The global political economy is in flux as a series of cumulative crises
impacts its organization and governance. The IPE series has tracked its
development in both analysis and structure over the last three decades. It
has always had a concentration on the global South. Now the South
increasingly challenges the North as the centre of development, also
reflected in a growing number of submissions and publications on indebted
Eurozone economies in Southern Europe. An indispensable resource for
scholars and researchers, the series examines a variety of capitalisms and
connections by focusing on emerging economies, companies and sectors,
debates and policies. It informs diverse policy communities as the estab-
lished trans-Atlantic North declines and ‘the rest’, especially the BRICS,
rise.
‘In a clear and powerful argument, grounded in evidence from a wide range of
sources, this book will persuade you that only eco-socialism can solve the climate
crisis and ensure our survival.’
—Jacklyn Cock, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Peadar Kirby • Tadhg O’Mahony
Tadhg:
To my Uncle John O’Mahony, his wife Peigí and family Máire, Aoife, Mossy,
Johnny, Diarmuid, David and the late Timmy. To my Aunty Kathleen
Meagher, her husband Ned and daughter Aoife:
Uncle John passed away in June 2016 and Aunty Kathleen in November.
This book is about a journey. I have many memories of journeys that
involved them in some way. From the Devil’s Bit to Watergrasshill.
I dedicate this book to your memory.
Foreword
vii
viii FOREWORD
problem, its place within the wider sustainability discourse, and from what
social and economic structures judicious solutions may arise.
Technical and scientific issues are adequately covered, as are the various
critiques. However, this book makes no pretence to substitute for 101
climate science and its value is certainly enhanced if the reader is already
familiar with climate science and the concept of carbon budgets. The real
strength of the analysis is in situating the technocratic framing of climate
change within an explicit and evolving political and social context.
The authors’ perspective and preferences are clear—they maintain a
critical perspective throughout—ultimately providing an open interpreta-
tion of the challenges faced and of the potential responses and solutions.
They are evidently unconvinced by the technocratic and market-mechanism
responses to climate change, seeing them very much as part of the prob-
lem rather than a framework for solutions. Their views here are well con-
structed and emerge from a clear understanding of the historical timeline
that has delivered both contemporary society and its accompanying prob-
lems. The transparency of their reasoning makes it an appropriate and
valuable read for those concerned about climate change, but who inter-
pret the mitigation landscape through a more conventional lens. In this
respect their analysis opens up the prospect for informed debate—from
which a richer understanding of the challenges should emerge—even if
disagreement still remains.
In constructing their arguments Peadar and Tadhg draw on experiences
from international development to shed light on the dynamic interplay
between technology, politics, culture, economics and power. In contrast
to much of the academic guidance on mitigation, they demonstrate a deep
appreciation of political economy and its pivotal role in thwarting or driv-
ing any meaningful progress.
Sadly, the growing dominance of abstract and quantitative scenarios
generated by ever more complex and black box modelling has increasingly
sidelined the thorny issues exposed by an understanding of political econ-
omy. Such ‘expert-based’ and highly technical approaches have effectively
closed down debate, providing instead inadequate responses to climate
change that do not threaten the dominant socioeconomic paradigm.
Eloquently capturing this process of marginalising plurality, Peadar and
Tadhg turn to the wisdom of Pope Francis who writes in his encyclical let-
ter Laudato Sí that ‘the alliance of technology and economics ends up
FOREWORD
ix
Kevin Anderson
Professor of Energy and Climate Change
University of Manchester
Deputy Director of the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research
Contents
xi
xii Contents
I ndex291
Abbreviations
xiii
xiv ABBREVIATIONS
xvii
List of Tables
xix
PART I
Introduction
By the normal practices of international politics, many of the speeches
made by world leaders at the Paris climate summit in December 2015
were exceptional. Not only was this the largest meeting of heads of state
and government from all over the world that had ever taken place, but it
was used to recognise that the growing threat of climate change could, as
President Barack Obama put it, ‘define the contours of this century more
dramatically than any other’, resulting in ‘submerged countries, aban-
doned cities, fields that no longer grow, political disruptions that trigger
new conflict, and even more floods of desperate peoples seeking the sanc-
tuary of nations not their own’. The summit’s host, President François
Hollande, put it even more starkly: ‘never—truly never—have the stakes
of an international meeting been so high. For the future of the planet, and
the future of life, are at stake’. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon agreed:
‘We have never faced such a test. … Paris must mark a turning point. We
need the world to know that we are headed to a low-emissions, climate-
resilient future, and that there is no going back.’
This is not the first time that humanity faced global catastrophe:
the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed over the Cold War world.
But the world’s leaders were correct in describing the threat now fac-
ing us as the greatest test ever since it is caused not by the triggering