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Decarbonizing the Downturn: Addressing Climate Change in an Age of Stagnation

Copley, J.

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Abstract

Meeting the Paris climate goals requires the global economy’s urgent decarbonization. States and intergovernmental bodies insist that this should be pursued via a tremendous spike in private investment in renewable power – encouraged and coordinated by states. However, this renewable investment boom will have to swim against the current of the stagnation of the world economy since the 1970s, characterized by weak rates of investment and growth. Undertaking decarbonization in this context presents unique political economy dilemmas. Firstly, although slow growth helps to reduce carbon emissions by lowering energy use, it simultaneously impedes energy efficiency gains. Secondly, the stagnant state of global industry militates against its adoption of expensive decarbonized industrial processes. Thirdly, while most renewable power sources have failed to attract sufficient investment, those that have expanded rapidly – particularly solar photovoltaic – have tended to exhaust their growth potential due to falling prices and profitability. Finally, economic stagnation has destabilized political institutions, exerting pressures on governments to stimulate growth regardless of the environmental implications. States must navigate these intractable dilemmas as they strategize to decarbonize the downturn.

Citation

Copley, J. (2023). Decarbonizing the Downturn: Addressing Climate Change in an Age of Stagnation. Competition & Change, 27(3-4), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294221120986

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 11, 2022
Online Publication Date Aug 16, 2022
Publication Date 2023-07
Deposit Date Nov 11, 2021
Publicly Available Date Aug 17, 2022
Journal Competition and Change
Print ISSN 1024-5294
Electronic ISSN 1477-2221
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 27
Issue 3-4
Pages 429–448
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294221120986
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1223519

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).





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