1
THE POLITICS OF GREEN
TRANSFORMATIONS
Ian Scoones, Peter Newell and Melissa Leach
The green transformation imperative – and its politics
Talk of transformation is back in vogue. This time the call is for a green
transformation,
1 but what would one look like and who will bring it into being?
While such a discussion implies a key role for technology and markets, it is also
deeply political. What makes it political, and which and whose politics will shape
the sorts of transformations that are desirable and possible?
A confluence of financial and ecological crises, in particular, have once again
raised issues about the ecological, social and economic sustainability of the global
economy, and the extent to which we have the sorts of political institutions able
to contain crises and steer positive and progressive change. This has prompted calls
for a new green industrial revolution, transitions to a low-carbon economy, or for
more radical restructuring for degrowth or the pursuit of prosperity without
growth (cf. OECD, 2011; Jackson, 2011).
While calls for radical transformations are often made but mostly ignored, this
one has captured attention at the highest levels, whether through the launching
of the Sustainable Development Goals, heightened mobilization around a ‘makeor-break’ climate agreement for Paris 2015, or renewed calls for a World
Environment Organisation at the time of the Rio+20 summit in 2012. Emphasis
is often placed on the need for massive public and private investment in new
technological revolutions (Stern and Rydge, 2012) or on greening capitalism through
pricing nature (Costanza et al., 2014). What is often missing, however, is attention
to the politics that are inevitably implied by disruptive change of this nature:
questions of institutional change and policy, as well as more profound shifts in
political power. This is the starting point for this book.
Why politics? What is it that makes green transformations political? The chapters
in this book provide a number of answers. Questions surrounding what counts as
green, what is to be transformed, who is to do the transforming, and whether
DOI: 10.4324/9781315747378-1
THE POLITICS OF GREEN
TRANSFORMATIONS
Ian Scoones, Peter Newell and Melissa Leach
The green transformation imperative – and its politics
Talk of transformation is back in vogue. This time the call is for a green
transformation,
1 but what would one look like and who will bring it into being?
While such a discussion implies a key role for technology and markets, it is also
deeply political. What makes it political, and which and whose politics will shape
the sorts of transformations that are desirable and possible?
A confluence of financial and ecological crises, in particular, have once again
raised issues about the ecological, social and economic sustainability of the global
economy, and the extent to which we have the sorts of political institutions able
to contain crises and steer positive and progressive change. This has prompted calls
for a new green industrial revolution, transitions to a low-carbon economy, or for
more radical restructuring for degrowth or the pursuit of prosperity without
growth (cf. OECD, 2011; Jackson, 2011).
While calls for radical transformations are often made but mostly ignored, this
one has captured attention at the highest levels, whether through the launching
of the Sustainable Development Goals, heightened mobilization around a ‘makeor-break’ climate agreement for Paris 2015, or renewed calls for a World
Environment Organisation at the time of the Rio+20 summit in 2012. Emphasis
is often placed on the need for massive public and private investment in new
technological revolutions (Stern and Rydge, 2012) or on greening capitalism through
pricing nature (Costanza et al., 2014). What is often missing, however, is attention
to the politics that are inevitably implied by disruptive change of this nature:
questions of institutional change and policy, as well as more profound shifts in
political power. This is the starting point for this book.
Why politics? What is it that makes green transformations political? The chapters
in this book provide a number of answers. Questions surrounding what counts as
green, what is to be transformed, who is to do the transforming, and whether
DOI: 10.4324/9781315747378-1