Forthcoming ARPS article on energy politics

[Jeff Colgan]

Hi folks,

I have a forthcoming article in the Annual Review of Political Science entitled “International Energy Politics in an Age of Climate Change.” It engages and cites work by a lot of the people on the GEP-ED list. Synthesizing some of this literature, my co-author and I argue that political science suggests a view of the clean energy transition that is quite different from two common views, which we stylize as “climate consequentialism”, sometimes found in the natural sciences, and “climate libertarianism”, sometimes found in economics. It can be found here:

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051421-124241 

Abstract below. I’m happy to share a PDF with anyone who has trouble accessing it. 

Jeff Colgan
Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor of Political Science
Director, Climate Solutions Lab
Web: www.jeffcolgan.com   Twitter: @JeffDColgan

Global climate change is opening up new questions and reinvigorating old lines of inquiry in the study of international energy politics. Many policymakers and stakeholders are pushing for a clean energy transition away from the fossil fuels that have long dominated the world's energy supply. On some issues, there is considerable consensus between political scientists and other analysts, such as the basic categories of the “winners” and “losers” from the clean energy transition. On other issues, however, political science tends to depart significantly from other disciplines. The politics of the desired clean energy transition are highly complicated and filled with obstacles beyond those typically highlighted by either economics or physical sciences. For these reasons, energy politics associated with oil and other fossil fuels are far from over and continue to develop, even as new political dynamics associated with the clean energy transition emerge.