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Excellent piece in @ForeignAffairs by @jessejenkins etal #decarbonization. Succinct tech summary of progress toward 1.5C. But I respectfully disagree w/ subhead “Technology can save the planet.” Here’s some politics to add to their great analysis. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-04-13/paths-net-zero">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/... THREAD
Tech progress CAN create a virtuous cycle. See work by @thomasnhale, @HoffmannMatt, eg. But #climatechange is largely a problem of inequality. An emphasis on technology overlooks this fact. 1/n https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0579-8">https://www.nature.com/articles/...
It glosses over the power of vested interests. I argue w/ @JeffDColgan and @thomasnhale that the existential politics of climate change mean that asset owners who face the loss of value of their assets will fight like hell to maintain that value. 2/n https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/21/02/2019/existential-politics-climate-change">https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/21/0...
Other work with @jenniferhadden @paashamahdavi and @thomasnhale shows that major oil and gas firms have softened their tone on #climatechange but #fossilfuels remain the core of their business model. 3/n
4/ @leahstokes shows that utilities are also effectively waging battles to maintain their monopoly on energy provision, which is why they hate net metering, for example. 4/n https://global.oup.com/academic/product/short-circuiting-policy-9780190074265?cc=ca&lang=en&">https://global.oup.com/academic/...
So yes to technology, but first: POLITICS. 5/n
Agree 100% that industrial policy is a key way to access these politics. But it’s not just about developing new tech and/or figuring out how to integrate it. It’s about political will to aggressively invest and deploy. cc @bentleyballan
The authors worry that #GreenNewDeal will become a “Xmas tree” w/ everyone’s favorite policy included. I see the logic as merging #industrialpolicy w/ mass politics, AND recognizing that climate change is primarily a problem abt inequality. 7/n
We can argue abt whether #GND has the details right. I see it as a political vision for addressing interrelated probs of #climatechange and inequality. To me, technology cannot fix what is fundamentally a political problem. 8/n cc @aldatweets @jnoisecat @katearonoff @joobilly
To be clear, I think v highly of all the authors of this piece (I know 3 of them personally). I’m just trying to inject some more politics into their excellent analysis. /FIN
