Approaches to energy transitions: Carbon pricing, managed decline, and/or green new deal?

Abstract

The need for wholescale energy transitions across the globe is now clear, but there is still much debate about how best to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Carbon‐pricing has so far been unable to avert the coming climate catastrophe. Instead supply‐side, managed decline of the fossil fuel sector and proposals for Green New Deals, or Just Transition are gaining steam among academics, policy communities, and movements and even entering mainstream politics. In this article, I review three main approaches to energy transition and highlight their underlying goals and assumptions. I argue that movements for energy transition must center social and economic justice in their struggles if they want to gain broad‐based appeal.

Η Απανθρακοποίηση Ως Μία Κοινωνικο-Οικολογική Διευθέτηση

“…Το ηθικο-πολιτικό πλαίσιο που περιβάλλει τη διαδικασία ενεργειακής μετάβασης απαντάται στο αίτημα για «δίκαιη μετάβαση», μια ρευστή έννοια που αξιοποιείται με διαφορετικά νοήματα. Ο όρος εμφανίζεται στα τέλη του 20ού αιώνα ως αίτημα εργατικών συνδικάτων για την προστασία θέσεων εργασίας από περιβαλλοντικές ρυθμίσεις σε βιομηχανίες (Eaton, 2020• Newell and Mulvaney, 2013• Stevis and Felli, 2020. Στις τρέχουσες συνθήκες κλιματικής κρίσης και απανθρακοποίησης απέκτησε ευρύτερη νοηματοδότηση καλύπτοντας, πέρα από την αναγκαιότητα εξασφάλισης θέσεων εργασίας και την επίλυση τοπικών κοινωνικών προβλημάτων, την περιβαλλοντική, ενεργειακή, κλιματική και διαγενεακή δικαιοσύνη (Galgóczi, 2019• Oei et al, 2020.…”

Does GATS’ Influence on Private University Sector’s Growth Ensure ESD or Develop City ‘Sustainability Crisis’—Policy Framework to Respond COP21

“…One of them emphasises technological innovations whereby new goods and services or products can help create carbon neutrality as demanded by COP21 [42]. Policies are often provided by the government to motivate both public and private sector agencies to work on innovations and, in this way, tackle the sustainability crisis [43]. Critics argued that this approach will not by itself solve the sustainability crisis and will only make things worse in the future [44,45].…”

From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"

“…53 Mainstream policy proposals for a 'Green New Deal' have been premised on the basis that a 'decoupling' of material resource use, and associated pollution, from continued economic growth, is possible. 54,55 This premise has in turn come under sustained attack in recent years, as efforts to articulate a 'fair low-carbon transition' have gathered pace. [56][57][58] Increasingly, the very notion of 'growth' itself has become problematised as being at the root of the crises we face.…”