Rather than look for evidence of the circumstances in which political revolutions
come about as a more radical account might demand, I have assumed here that
capitalism will form the context in which green transformations will have to emerge,
at least initially and embryonically, and therefore that they will be subject to the
dynamics of power pertaining to this model of organizing the economy. To be
clear, though, the starting point was explicitly to look for precedents of more radical
reorganizations in the structure of the economy of the sort I believe are required
again now. I do not share the view, therefore, that a combination of appropriate
market signals and improved technologies or better governance will be sufficient
to produce a serious, deep or lasting green transformation of the sort that is required
to properly create a sustainable economy. That is not to say that technological
transformation will not be possible or that effective responses to some aspects of
sustainability challenges could not be forged. It is possible to envisage a project of
decarbonization that is made compatible with the growth imperatives of capitalism,
a form of ‘climate capitalism’ (Newell and Paterson, 2010), but across the range
of resource limits which a growth-obsessed capitalist economy pushes up against,
where rebound effects means that resource savings are often reinvested in greater
resource use, and the way responses to these challenges tend to employ spatial and
temporal fixes to move crises around rather than resolve them, the picture is less
optimistic. The longer term goal, therefore, has to be a transformation of capitalism
rather than a transformation within, but that we have to start the analysis on the
terrain of the here and now and the actually existing political economy, as it is,
not as we would like it to be.
Notes
1 Marxists use the concept of fractions of capital in different ways to refer to a particular
stage in the circuit of capital – i.e. ‘finance capital’, ‘commodity capital’ etc. or sometimes
in relation to sectoral interests – i.e. ‘mining’ or ‘agricultural capital’ where interests are
understood in relation to their political representation within policy processes (Clarke,
1978; van der Pijl, 1998, p3).
2 The concept of the regime of accumulation refers to the way in which production,
circulation, consumption and distribution organize and expand capital in a way that
stabilizes the economy over time. The modes of regulation required to stabilize these
regimes include the law, state policy, corporate governance and cultures of consumption.
3 The term gained prominence when it was used by Antonio Gramsci in his essay
‘Americanism and Fordism’, in his Prison Notebooks.
4 Lipietz claims that ‘creative destruction’ through a green transport revolution would
suppress 4.5 million jobs in the production of individual cars but create 8 million jobs
in collective transport (Lipietz, 2013, p13).
5 Disciplinary neoliberalism refers to the ways in which the scope for legitimate state action
and progressive democratic politics is circumscribed by global trade, and investment
accords and the rights of capital over states begin to take the form of a ‘new
constitutionalism’, protected by international law (Gill, 1995).
6 Mitchell’s claim is based on the fact that the era of abundant oil appears to have ended,
given that the world is using up stores of petroleum faster than new supplies can be
discovered and the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption in order to tackle climate change
(Mitchell, 2011, pp231–233).
84 Peter Newell
come about as a more radical account might demand, I have assumed here that
capitalism will form the context in which green transformations will have to emerge,
at least initially and embryonically, and therefore that they will be subject to the
dynamics of power pertaining to this model of organizing the economy. To be
clear, though, the starting point was explicitly to look for precedents of more radical
reorganizations in the structure of the economy of the sort I believe are required
again now. I do not share the view, therefore, that a combination of appropriate
market signals and improved technologies or better governance will be sufficient
to produce a serious, deep or lasting green transformation of the sort that is required
to properly create a sustainable economy. That is not to say that technological
transformation will not be possible or that effective responses to some aspects of
sustainability challenges could not be forged. It is possible to envisage a project of
decarbonization that is made compatible with the growth imperatives of capitalism,
a form of ‘climate capitalism’ (Newell and Paterson, 2010), but across the range
of resource limits which a growth-obsessed capitalist economy pushes up against,
where rebound effects means that resource savings are often reinvested in greater
resource use, and the way responses to these challenges tend to employ spatial and
temporal fixes to move crises around rather than resolve them, the picture is less
optimistic. The longer term goal, therefore, has to be a transformation of capitalism
rather than a transformation within, but that we have to start the analysis on the
terrain of the here and now and the actually existing political economy, as it is,
not as we would like it to be.
Notes
1 Marxists use the concept of fractions of capital in different ways to refer to a particular
stage in the circuit of capital – i.e. ‘finance capital’, ‘commodity capital’ etc. or sometimes
in relation to sectoral interests – i.e. ‘mining’ or ‘agricultural capital’ where interests are
understood in relation to their political representation within policy processes (Clarke,
1978; van der Pijl, 1998, p3).
2 The concept of the regime of accumulation refers to the way in which production,
circulation, consumption and distribution organize and expand capital in a way that
stabilizes the economy over time. The modes of regulation required to stabilize these
regimes include the law, state policy, corporate governance and cultures of consumption.
3 The term gained prominence when it was used by Antonio Gramsci in his essay
‘Americanism and Fordism’, in his Prison Notebooks.
4 Lipietz claims that ‘creative destruction’ through a green transport revolution would
suppress 4.5 million jobs in the production of individual cars but create 8 million jobs
in collective transport (Lipietz, 2013, p13).
5 Disciplinary neoliberalism refers to the ways in which the scope for legitimate state action
and progressive democratic politics is circumscribed by global trade, and investment
accords and the rights of capital over states begin to take the form of a ‘new
constitutionalism’, protected by international law (Gill, 1995).
6 Mitchell’s claim is based on the fact that the era of abundant oil appears to have ended,
given that the world is using up stores of petroleum faster than new supplies can be
discovered and the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption in order to tackle climate change
(Mitchell, 2011, pp231–233).
84 Peter Newell