Global climate governance and transition to a low-carbon economy: a special issue of RBPI[subtitle]

The influence of mitigation policies of the International Climate Change Regime in the reduction of greenhouse gases in the area of transport

“…It is considered important the concern of governments of these two countries with research and development in the climate area, not only for monitoring of current and future occurrences of the climate, but also in the development of alternative sources of energy to meet the growing demand of their countries, prevention risks to their poorest populations by weather events currently underway in the region and reported in their national communications; g) it is important to monitor the development of the concept and the results of economic growth with reduction of GHG emissions per unit of GDP, which is expressed by some governments as a way to alleviate their growing greenhouse gas emissions, with goal setting to be achieved in the coming years, as the case of China, that could have a greater impact on the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. Hung and Tsai, cited by Viola and Lessa [19] point out the various dilemmas that are faced by the Chinese elites in relation to the accelerated economic growth to consolidate a new superpower and eradicate poverty versus the need to avoid the burden of stalling the negotiations on the climate change. China, being one of the countries most vulnerable to climate changes, is very tempted to grow quickly in an attempt to alleviate the impact on the country and its people when the situation becomes more critical.…”

Political economies of climate change

“…But even if numerically it is possible to imagine the decarbonization of the global economy within the constraints posed by the logic of growth, this points importantly to the character of the challenge: to identify the sectors, products, services that are key to keeping growth going while decarbonizing the economy, and the policy and political processes by which those processes might be favored. The various discourses of sustainable development, ecological modernization, green growth (Dale, Mathai, & Puppim De Oliveira, ; Moe, ), “green transformation” (Scoones, Leach, & Newell, ) and all the variants on a “low‐carbon” economy (Lovell, ; Urban & Nordensvärd, ; Viola & Lessa, ), are in effect attempts to articulate how such a transformation might occur within the constraints and logics of capitalism (Anshelm & Hultman, ).…”