scholarly journals Combined and uneven energy transitions: reactive decarbonization in Cuba and Venezuela

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 558-579
Author(s):  
Donald V. Kingsbury
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Special Period ◽  
Energy Transitions ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Legislative Measures ◽  
Reversible Nature ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Mounting impacts of climate change have increased calls for a planetary energy transition, usually understood as the decarbonization of the global economy. All too often, however, these calls rely on technological or legislative measures, betraying an apolitical understanding of climate change and insufficient appreciation for the uneven global distribution of safety, risk, and power. Through an examination of recent events in Cuba and Venezuela, this article asks how prevailing calls for energy transitions to post-carbon futures reflect the combined and uneven present, replicating the inequalities of late carbon capitalism. By considering the 'Special Period in Times of Peace' in Cuba, as the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union was known, and Venezuela's overlapping crises since 2014 as energy transitions, this article highlights difficulties along the path to more sustainable and just futures. It also calls to attention the intensely social, but potentially incomplete and reversible, nature of energy transitions.Keywords: Energy transitions, Cuba, Venezuela, Special Period, extractivism, decarbonization

scholarly journals The role of youth in the climate change debate

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Van Den Hazel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Young People ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Sustainable Lifestyles ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally. Some people will experience natural disasters first hand, some will be affected more gradually over time, and some will experience only indirect impacts. There are data from the United nations that show the interest of youth on climate change. Close to half a million youth around the world have taken action on climate change through SGP [small grants programmes] projects in their homes, schools and communities. (UNDP, 2015). 84% of the surveyed young people agree that they need more information to prevent climate change. (UNEP, 2011). Furthermore, about 73% of surveyed youth say they currently feel the effects climate change. (UNEP, GlobeScan Survey, 2008). Some 89% of youth respondents say young people can make a difference on climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. But only 9% of youth are very confident the world will act quickly enough to address climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. Young people are key actors in raising awareness, running educational programmes, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature, supporting renewable energy, adopting environmentally-friendly practices and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects[UNFCCC]. Action by youth, as protest school strikes or speeches to the UN by Greta Thunberg, urge immediate action from governments, business leaders and school leaders. There are different reasons for this action by youth. The psycho-social impacts of a changing climate are generally under lighted in these reasons. Are the responses by society enough to minimize suffering and promote resilience of youth in the face of the challenging impacts of climate change? Or do governments and businesses enough while they increasingly seem to be moving toward action on climate change, as they proclaim to cut their own emissions or be active in their energy transition? It is not clear whether those actions are enough to satisfy the next generation of customers, employees and decision makers.

A Critique of Neo-Malthusian Marxism: Society, Nature, and Population

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Burkett
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Free Market ◽  
New Left ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Marxist Ideology

AbstractRecent decades have seen a rethinking and renewal of Marxism on various levels, beginning in the 1950s and 1960s when New-Left movements in the developed capitalist countries combined with Maoist, Guevarist, and other Third-World liberation struggles to challenge the ossified theory and practice of Soviet-style communism and traditional social democracy. More recently, the rethinking of Marxism has been driven largely by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its official Marxist ideology, and by the movement toward neoliberal ‘free market’ policies on a global scale, which together have brought forth a tidal wave of frankly pro-capitalist as well as ‘postmodern’ left varieties of ‘end of history'-type thinking. The contemporary challenge to Marxism, however, also has a positive side in the form of popular revolts against the neoliberalisation of the global economy – the Chiapas rebellion in Mexico, the December 1995 public sector upheavals in France, and many others, not to mention the heroic struggle of the Cuban people against the threat of recolonisation by US and global capital. Here the challenge is to incorporate the changing forms of working-class movement, and their new prefigurations of post-capitalist society, into the theory and practice of Marxian communism.

11. Is Marx still relevant?

2018 ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Peter Singer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Proletarian Revolution

By the early 20th century, Marxism was the dominant ideology of the left, especially in Europe. Marxism spread significantly around the world after the two world wars, but Marx’s prominence went into abrupt decline in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, China has been the most significant avowedly Marxist country. ‘Is Marx still relevant?’ considers whether Marx’s views are still relevant when dealing with worldwide inequality, global financial crises, the age of globalization, and climate change. It concludes that Marx’s ideas about the role that economic interests play in our intellectual and political lives will remain relevant, but that his prediction of the inevitability of a proletarian revolution will not.

6. Russia in the global economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Richard Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Large Country ◽  
Strong State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Gulf States

While Russia has not fully diversified, it has a stronger presence in the software industry, is one of the world’s biggest exporters of diamonds, and its substantial wheat exports demonstrate increased stability since the days of the Soviet Union. ‘Russia in the global economy’ looks at Russia’s landscape, reminding us that while Moscow resembles other glamorous urban centres, great swathes of this large country are off-grid. When Russia has succeeded financially, the world economy has historically been healthy. Will another downturn in the markets impact Russia? Looking at the success of China and the Gulf States, is a strong state always a barrier to business?

scholarly journals CLIMATE CHANGE AND FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY: RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 28-46
Author(s):  
Matthew Agarwala ◽  
Matt Burke ◽  
Patrycja Klusak ◽  
Kamiar Mohaddes ◽  
Ulrich Volz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Fiscal Sustainability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Climate Targets ◽  
Hedging Strategies ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Macroeconomic Risks ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Both the physical and transition-related impacts of climate change pose substantial macroeconomic risks. Yet, markets still lack credible estimates of how climate change will affect debt sustainability, sovereign creditworthiness and the public finances of major economies. We present a taxonomy for tracing the physical and transition impacts of climate change through to impacts on sovereign risk. We then apply the taxonomy to the UK’s potential transition to net zero. Meeting internationally agreed climate targets will require an unprecedented structural transformation of the global economy over the next two or three decades. The changing landscape of risks warrants new risk management and hedging strategies to contain climate risk and minimise the impact of asset stranding and asset devaluation. Yet, conditional on action being taken early, the opportunities from managing a net zero transition would substantially outweigh the costs.

scholarly journals ‘To fish or not to fish?’: fishing communities of Arctic Yakutia in the face of environmental change and political transformations

Polar Record ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislav Ksenofontov ◽  
Norman Backhaus ◽  
Gabriela Schaepman-Strub
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Fishing Communities ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Face ◽  
Increasing Temperature ◽  
Traditional Fishing ◽  
Fishing Regulations

ABSTRACTThis paper assesses the vulnerability of Arctic fishing communities. We hypothesise that climate change related trends, such as increasing temperature and altered seasonality, and shocks, such as the breakdown of the Soviet Union or new fishing regulations, increase vulnerability of local Arctic peoples and compromise the sustainability of their livelihoods. Research shows that over recent decades local people have observed environmental changes and a significant decrease in the number of fish caught. Fishing regulations introduced after the collapse of the Soviet Union burdened fishers with quotas and temporal limitations that have hindered their fishing activities. While the adaptability of traditional fishing techniques to seasonally changing conditions might indicate the potential to adapt to future conditions under climate change, fishing regulations appear to limit this potential to adapt.

scholarly journals Using Emissions Intensity to Better Track Energy Transitions

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 681-690
Author(s):  
Kelly D’alessandro ◽  
Paul Dargusch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Policy ◽  
International Energy Agency ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Energy Transitions ◽  
Emissions Intensity ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Climate And Energy Policy

Abstract Current metrics fail to adequately capture the temporal and spatial complexity of energy transitions in a sufficiently meaningful way and this limits their usefulness to inform effective climate and energy policy and management. In this paper we propose a cumulative integral of CO2 emissions intensity for electricity and heat use as a metric to monitor energy transition progress. We demonstrate its application using International Energy Agency data for each of the G20-member countries. Findings show that whilst most countries are far from the energy transition positions required to effectively mitigate climate change, there are some examples of countries that have made an effective transition that provide useful insights into how energy transitions might progress more extensively.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document