for getting economies out of crises was observable once again in the wake of the
latest financial crisis from 2008, where the appeal to consumers, almost as their
primary duty as citizens, was to spend more to buoy the economy, even if this
implied increased personal indebtedness. This highlights the scale of the challenge
facing anti-consumerism groups such as Rising Tide and Enough and other
movements seeking to challenge unsustainable patterns of consumption, especially
given that the introduction of new sources of energy has historically tended to
increase overall consumption (Fouquet and Pearson, 2012, p2). Histories of energy
transition also point to the fact that consumer willingness to adopt new technologies
and accept new energy sources depends on the enhanced benefits they are perceived
to provide (Fouquet and Pearson, 2012, p2). Yet it will be very difficult for
renewable energies to compete with the comfort and reliability of fossil fuels. The
same is perhaps true for the alleged personalized freedom that the car provides.
Second, the importance of assuring a social contract or pact between capital
and labour emerges as key to attempts to reorganize production, and has impli -
cations for debates about the prospects of a ‘just transition’ and, in particular, how
labour might benefit from a switch of industrial base to lower carbon forms of
energy: the US$4tn industry that is sustaining a large number of jobs and growth
according to some estimates (Jacobs, 2012b). Pursuing the ‘just transition’ means
making sure the transition to a lower carbon economy is a fair one (Swilling and
Annecke, 2012). This is often about bringing on board the potential losers from
a transition to a low-carbon economy, those whose jobs and livelihoods are
dependent on fossil fuels (such as in the mining, oil and car sectors that have been
so central to previous and the current regime of accumulation),
4 and being explicit
about the trade-offs, compensation and forms of retraining that may be required
to make transition socially just and palatable. There are emerging cases of how
fossil-dependent economies have tried to do this (Evans, 2010), for example, of
cities in Germany losing jobs in coal and setting up solar industries, but clearly it
has to go beyond how individual communities blighted by deindustrialization
adapt or seek to identify new accumulation strategies on to wider decoupling
strategies of energy use from growth. On the positive side, it can be about selling
the potential of renewable energy that ‘renewable energy is poor people’s energy’,
as groups like Earthlife South Africa do, demonstrating job-creation potential of
different energy pathways (2013). However, it needs to be explicit who gains what
in such transitions.
There is perhaps also a great, but thus far largely unrealized potential for alliances
with potential losers from climate change, such as farmers who might lose out
from declining yields and unpredictable rainfall patterns, for example, which are
often mobilized in powerful unions such as the UK’s National Farmers Union. Or
with potential winners such as public sector transportation workers who would
benefit from large-scale investments in public transport. This is why it is so im -
port ant to get mass movements on board, such as trade unions, those with extensive
reach, mass appeal, perceived legitimacy and reach (Obach, 2004). Indeed, there
are examples of localized emerging collaborations between environmental groups,
Green transformations in capitalism 75
latest financial crisis from 2008, where the appeal to consumers, almost as their
primary duty as citizens, was to spend more to buoy the economy, even if this
implied increased personal indebtedness. This highlights the scale of the challenge
facing anti-consumerism groups such as Rising Tide and Enough and other
movements seeking to challenge unsustainable patterns of consumption, especially
given that the introduction of new sources of energy has historically tended to
increase overall consumption (Fouquet and Pearson, 2012, p2). Histories of energy
transition also point to the fact that consumer willingness to adopt new technologies
and accept new energy sources depends on the enhanced benefits they are perceived
to provide (Fouquet and Pearson, 2012, p2). Yet it will be very difficult for
renewable energies to compete with the comfort and reliability of fossil fuels. The
same is perhaps true for the alleged personalized freedom that the car provides.
Second, the importance of assuring a social contract or pact between capital
and labour emerges as key to attempts to reorganize production, and has impli -
cations for debates about the prospects of a ‘just transition’ and, in particular, how
labour might benefit from a switch of industrial base to lower carbon forms of
energy: the US$4tn industry that is sustaining a large number of jobs and growth
according to some estimates (Jacobs, 2012b). Pursuing the ‘just transition’ means
making sure the transition to a lower carbon economy is a fair one (Swilling and
Annecke, 2012). This is often about bringing on board the potential losers from
a transition to a low-carbon economy, those whose jobs and livelihoods are
dependent on fossil fuels (such as in the mining, oil and car sectors that have been
so central to previous and the current regime of accumulation),
4 and being explicit
about the trade-offs, compensation and forms of retraining that may be required
to make transition socially just and palatable. There are emerging cases of how
fossil-dependent economies have tried to do this (Evans, 2010), for example, of
cities in Germany losing jobs in coal and setting up solar industries, but clearly it
has to go beyond how individual communities blighted by deindustrialization
adapt or seek to identify new accumulation strategies on to wider decoupling
strategies of energy use from growth. On the positive side, it can be about selling
the potential of renewable energy that ‘renewable energy is poor people’s energy’,
as groups like Earthlife South Africa do, demonstrating job-creation potential of
different energy pathways (2013). However, it needs to be explicit who gains what
in such transitions.
There is perhaps also a great, but thus far largely unrealized potential for alliances
with potential losers from climate change, such as farmers who might lose out
from declining yields and unpredictable rainfall patterns, for example, which are
often mobilized in powerful unions such as the UK’s National Farmers Union. Or
with potential winners such as public sector transportation workers who would
benefit from large-scale investments in public transport. This is why it is so im -
port ant to get mass movements on board, such as trade unions, those with extensive
reach, mass appeal, perceived legitimacy and reach (Obach, 2004). Indeed, there
are examples of localized emerging collaborations between environmental groups,
Green transformations in capitalism 75