Strategies for rapid climate mitigation : wartime mobilisation as a model for action?

209 Pages·2016·1.696 MB·English

by  Laurence Delina

Strategies for Rapid Climate Mitigation
Tokeeptheglobalaveragetemperaturefromrisingfurtherthan2°C,emissions
must peak soon and then fall steeply. This book examines how such rapid
mitigation can proceed – in the scale and speed required for effective climate
action – using an analogy provided by the mobilisation for a war that
encompassed nations, World War II.
Strategies for Rapid Climate Mitigation examines the wartime–climate ana-
logy by drawing lessons from wartime mobilisations to develop contingency
plans for a scenario where governments implement stringent mitigation
programmes as an ‘insurance policy’ where we pay for future benefits.
Readers are provided a picture of how these programmes could look, how
they would work, what could trigger them, and the challenges in execution.
The book analyses in detail one plausible approach to a crucial issue – an
approach built upon knowledge of climate science and on proven and
demonstrated mitigation measures. The book is meshed with a social and
political analysis that draws upon narratives of mobilisations during the war
to meet a transnational threat, while also addressing the shortcomings of the
analogy and its strategies.
The book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and practitioners
of public policy, climate policy, energy policy, international relations, and
strategic studies.
Laurence L. Delina conducts research at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for
theStudyoftheLonger-Range FutureatBostonUniversity,USA.Heisalso
a research associate at the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the
University of Massachusetts Boston, an Earth System Governance Research
Fellow, and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.
“The most fascinating part of this book is its close look at how wartime
mobilization of our industrial sector might actually happen. People have
been talking about it for years, but Laurence Delina has actually done
the work to figure it out.” – Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, USA
“The world needs to transition to clean, renewable energy as quickly as
possible to reduce the health and climate damage inflicted by the combus-
tion age. This excellent new book examines resources and efforts needed for
such a transformation, using wartime mobilization as an example. I recom-
mend it highly for students and the public.” – Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford
University, USA
“Strategies for Rapid Climate Mitigation is an important and timely contribu-
tion to the urgent debate about the actions required to drive swift and equi-
table decarbonisation of the global economy. The detailed and thoughtful
discussion of key legislative, regulatory, financial, and labour market policies
for mobilizing the resources and capabilities required to achieve emergency
speed emission reductions is particularly valuable.” – John Wiseman, Deputy
Director,MelbourneSustainableSocietyInstitute,UniversityofMelbourne,Australia
“In our age of catastrophe and neoliberal defeatism, this book is abeacon of
hope. Laurence Delina uses his fierce intellect and bold vision to demon-
stratethataglobalemergencymobilizationagainstclimatechange,withstates
as central actors, is a viable strategy—indeed it may be the only one left. A
must read.” – Margaret Klein-Salamon, founder and director of The Climate
Mobilization, USA
“Despite frequent calls for rapid transitions to a lower carbon economy, few
people have sought systematically to build on the lessons of the past to
sketch out potential scenarios for the future. The Gendanken (thought)
experiment that lies at the heart of this book forces us to engage with his-
torical lessons and face up to uncomfortable truths about the role of the
state, finance and labour in enabling and accelerating an energy transition to
a world in which climate change is more effectively addressed. It is original,
provocative and deserves to be widely read.” – Peter Newell, University of
Sussex,UK.EditorofThePoliticsofGreenTransformations(Routledge2015).
“Delina asks how human societies can tackle the herculean task of recasting
energy systems to meet climate change. He successfully sketches the many
moving parts involved in a complex socio-technical transition. From sus-
tainable energy technologies to public policies, and from vested interests to
systemic inertia, transition looks daunting. In answer, Delina argues for
reviving governmentasaleadingagentofchange,ratherthanrelyingonlyon
the market. Using wartime mobilization history, he shows both the
possibilities and limitations of government action. He calls for the creation
of new, powerful institutions to help plan and superintend the widespread,
rapid take-up of sustainable energy technologies. He also calls for checks on
executive power, reflecting modern democratic norms. The book empowers
us to imagine how we might arrive at our climate-safe future.” – Alastair Iles,
University of California Berkeley, USA
“If publics come to demand climate action, as well they might as extreme
weather intensifies and surprises multiply, this book offers a model, histori-
cally grounded yet applied to contemporary, even future trends. Delina
doesn't just look back for ‘lessons from history’ but projects forward, ima-
gining the possibility of fundamentally challenging the self-destructive, end-
lessly expansionist order.” – Thomas Princen, University of Michigan Ann
Arbor, USA
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A bottom-up perspective Mitigation
Peter H. Koehn Wartime mobilisation as a model
for action?
Community Action and Climate Laurence L. Delina
Change
Jennifer Kent
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Strategies for Rapid Climate
Mitigation
Wartime mobilisation as a model for
action?
Laurence L. Delina
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Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
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©2016LaurenceL.Delina
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Delina,LaurenceL.
Title:Strategiesforrapidclimatemitigation:wartimemobilisationasa
modelforaction?/LaurenceL.Delina.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,Earthscan,
2016.|Series:Routledgeadvancesinclimatechangeresearch
Identifiers:LCCN2015048759|ISBN9781138646230(hb)|
ISBN9781315627663(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Climatechangemitigation.|Climatechangemitigation--
Socialaspects.|Climatechangemitigation--Internationalcooperation.
Classification:LCCQC903.D4452016|DDC363.738/746--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015048759
ISBN:978-1-138-64623-0(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-62766-3(ebk)
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