How is Continued Economic Growth Compatible with Decarbonising the Global Energy System

To What Extent Is Continued Economic Growth Compatible with Decarbonising the Global Energy System
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To What Extent Is Continued Economic Growth Compatible with Decarbonising the Global Energy System
Under the existing and planned policies, energy-related CO2 emissions are projected to rise to 35 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2050, down from 33Gt in 2015. According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, the global targets of achieving a 20C and falling to 9.7 Gt might not be reached with the current trends (Gielen et al., 2019). Wang et al (2021) have also shown that the current climate commitments might not achieve the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over 7% per year. There have been fears that the rate of global economic growth and climate policy might not achieve the Paris Agreement. Nevertheless, academic literature has often opposed the observation that radical economic growth impacts climate mitigation efforts and the reduction of CO2 emissions (Wang et al., 2021). In the recent past, human-induced climate change has resulted in renewed attention over the need for a "low carbon" industrial revolution that calls for large-scale technological breakthroughs and a radical reduction in CO2 emissions in a global low-carbon economy (Newell, 2019). There have been international concerns over climate change, increasing carbon emissions, declining environmental quality, rising energy demand, volatile oil prices, and uneven and limited endowment of fossil fuels. These concerns have inspired the move toward decarbonizing the global energy system (Emenekwe et al., 2022). Countries and significant oil and gas companies such as Shell, BP, and Total are facing challenges in getting renewable energy to a level of price competitiveness with fossil fuel in a counter-carbon energy transition (Christophers, 2022). This paper examines the extent to which continued economic growth is compatible with decarbonizing the global energy system from the perspective of international politics of renewable energy.
While more and more states have called for a shift to "net-zero" emissions by 2050, the renewable energy (RE) transition will radically reshape world politics (Albert, 2022). This target is legally binding through the European Climate Law, and countries such as China have agreed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Canada, Japan, and South Korea have also committed to achieving the "net-zero" target nu 2050 and challenged Australia, India, and the United States to do the same. Although this transition appears uncertain, there have been debates on how it will restructure world politics. Growing literature from different scholars has investigated the economic and geopolitical implications. International political economy (IPE) scholars project that RE transition has the potential to substitute fossil fuel and advance the agenda of military and economic growth competition, as has been witnessed over the last two centuries in global politics (Albert, 2022). This argument systematically investigates how the transition may reshape global political-economic interdependencies, inter-state power balance, possibilities for conflict and peace, and global governance institutions. From the perspective of the non-su...