including those that have emerged from the long co-existence of people and
ecologies in diverse settings (Martin et al., 2013).
Markets always depend to some extent on state action, on the ways that states
enable the emergence of particular markets, and through providing incentives and
regulation, shape how they operate. Pathways of green transformation therefore
often involve combinations of market and state action, even while narratives of
marketized transformations portray markets as if they acted alone. In contrast, other
narratives focus on the role of the state.
State-led transformations
A third narrative focuses on state-led transformations to sustainability. The
starting point is often the need to re-embed markets in stronger frameworks of
social control, combined with a recognition of states’ historically central role in
previous waves of innovation and financing of technology and growth. Arguments
for a ‘green entrepreneurial state’ (Mazzucato, 2013b, this book), or green industrial
policy (Schmitz, this book), or earlier work on the ‘green state’ (Eckersley, 2004),
all emphasize the central role of state action.
Unsurprisingly, the state also features highly in accounts of transition management and its critical stabilizing, backstopping and stimulus roles have been
underscored by recent crises. Jacobs (2013) documents how the recent case for
greening economies emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Amid neoKeynesian policies to rebuild economies by replacing lost private-sector demand
with public expenditure and thus create multiplier effects, public initiatives aimed
at protecting the environment were highlighted. Thus, areas such as energy
efficiency, renewable energy, water quality improvement, agricultural and landscape
management, public transport and pollution control were seen to offer ways to
get people into work and to increase demand for goods and services. Many of the
countries that introduced fiscal stimulus packages in 2008–2009 included ‘green’
programmes of these kinds. In 2009, UNEP proposed a Global Green New Deal,
including an agenda to expand public services, regulate private-sector activities and
promote less resource-intensive patterns.
What has attracted particular interest in recent years is the role for developmental
entrepreneurial states with the growth of ‘rising powers’ such as China, Brazil and
India, willing and able to use proactive industrial policy to spur marketized and
technological transformations. In a new multipolar global context, it is these
countries that are often leading in green transformations, and they are countries
where the state is playing an active role. Investments in renewable energy – wind
and solar – provide key examples. These efforts are often financed by powerful
and well-resourced development banks able to support ambitious investment strat -
egies, as Spratt (this book) shows for Brazil and Mazzucato (this book) describes
for Chinese investment in solar power. States are thus not just providing counter -
cyclical lending, but are even ‘directing’ that lending towards key, innovative parts
of the ‘green’ economy.
14 Ian Scoones, Peter Newell and Melissa Leach
ecologies in diverse settings (Martin et al., 2013).
Markets always depend to some extent on state action, on the ways that states
enable the emergence of particular markets, and through providing incentives and
regulation, shape how they operate. Pathways of green transformation therefore
often involve combinations of market and state action, even while narratives of
marketized transformations portray markets as if they acted alone. In contrast, other
narratives focus on the role of the state.
State-led transformations
A third narrative focuses on state-led transformations to sustainability. The
starting point is often the need to re-embed markets in stronger frameworks of
social control, combined with a recognition of states’ historically central role in
previous waves of innovation and financing of technology and growth. Arguments
for a ‘green entrepreneurial state’ (Mazzucato, 2013b, this book), or green industrial
policy (Schmitz, this book), or earlier work on the ‘green state’ (Eckersley, 2004),
all emphasize the central role of state action.
Unsurprisingly, the state also features highly in accounts of transition management and its critical stabilizing, backstopping and stimulus roles have been
underscored by recent crises. Jacobs (2013) documents how the recent case for
greening economies emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Amid neoKeynesian policies to rebuild economies by replacing lost private-sector demand
with public expenditure and thus create multiplier effects, public initiatives aimed
at protecting the environment were highlighted. Thus, areas such as energy
efficiency, renewable energy, water quality improvement, agricultural and landscape
management, public transport and pollution control were seen to offer ways to
get people into work and to increase demand for goods and services. Many of the
countries that introduced fiscal stimulus packages in 2008–2009 included ‘green’
programmes of these kinds. In 2009, UNEP proposed a Global Green New Deal,
including an agenda to expand public services, regulate private-sector activities and
promote less resource-intensive patterns.
What has attracted particular interest in recent years is the role for developmental
entrepreneurial states with the growth of ‘rising powers’ such as China, Brazil and
India, willing and able to use proactive industrial policy to spur marketized and
technological transformations. In a new multipolar global context, it is these
countries that are often leading in green transformations, and they are countries
where the state is playing an active role. Investments in renewable energy – wind
and solar – provide key examples. These efforts are often financed by powerful
and well-resourced development banks able to support ambitious investment strat -
egies, as Spratt (this book) shows for Brazil and Mazzucato (this book) describes
for Chinese investment in solar power. States are thus not just providing counter -
cyclical lending, but are even ‘directing’ that lending towards key, innovative parts
of the ‘green’ economy.
14 Ian Scoones, Peter Newell and Melissa Leach