The political economy of technical fixes: The (mis)alignment of clean fossil and political regimes

Markusson, Nils; Gjefsen, Mads Dahl; Stephens, Jennie C.; Tyfield, David

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2016.11.004

Cited by 63 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…Most obviously perhaps is the fact that emission-induced changes to biophysical and atmospheric conditions will (and to some degree already do) directly impact agricultural yields and general productivity, damage infrastructure, increase insurance costs, etc. As Malm (2017) rightly points out, however, it will be a long time still before capital is affected by these effects in any systemic way, and climate change will have wreaked disaster and devastation on those most vulnerable long before it does. Particularly from the perspective of fossil fuel capital, the arguably more immediate problem posed by climate change is the social and political reactions against it, i.e.…”

Section: Theorising a Spatiotemporal Fix To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, I propose that analysing the work that "promised" negative emissions (cf. Markusson et al 2017) perform for, in this case, fossil capital helps further efforts to ecologise Harvey's (2001Harvey's ( , 2007 notion of the spatiotemporal fix, as articulated in Ekers and Prudham's (2015 recent work on the socioecological fix (see also Castree 2008;McCarthy 2015;Surprise 2018). Most directly perhaps, the political economy of negative emissions puts in focus the underappreciated importance of the temporal dimensions of such fixes; that is, the various opportunities that exist to manage the rate at which socioeconomic upheaval occurs, and the way in which constructed visions of the future help defer crisis in the present.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Fixing” Climate Change by Mortgaging the Future: Negative Emissions, Spatiotemporal Fixes, and the Political Economy of Delay

Carton

2019

Antipode

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Models suggest that climate change mitigation now depends on negative emissions, i.e. the large‐scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This assumption has been criticised in the climate policy literature for being unfeasible and unjust. This article asks how critical scholars can make sense of, and contribute to these debates. It suggests that negative emissions can be conceived of as a spatiotemporal fix that promises to defer the devaluation of fixed capital. But the negative emissions example also challenges us to broaden our conception of how the socioecological contradictions of capitalism can be “fixed”. I outline three ways in which it does this by highlighting the significance of a predominantly temporal fix, the role of hegemonic, sociopolitical interventions involving multiple actors, and the possibility of safeguarding existing production processes. I conclude that spatiotemporal fixes to climate change should be seen as part of a wider political economy of delay in devaluing carbon‐intensive accumulation processes.

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Section: Theorising a Spatiotemporal Fix To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Fixing” Climate Change by Mortgaging the Future: Negative Emissions, Spatiotemporal Fixes, and the Political Economy of Delay

Carton

2019

Antipode

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“…So far from a ‘transition’ technology, CCS can be seen as “a spatio‐temporal fix. It would offer opportunities for investment, and so potentially be a response to not only the ongoing climate crisis, but also the financial one” (Markusson et al, , p. 4). Despite this, further research on CCS would be beneficial, particularly from a discursive perspective (e.g.…”

Section: Appraising the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A special issue in Global Environmental Change provides a good entry point into the debate about CCS (Bäckstrand, Meadowcroft, & Oppenheimer, 2011), which is frequently mooted by proponents of coal as a technological solution that provides pollution free coal-fired energy to either avert the need for a transition or at the very least facilitate a more just transition (Knights & Hood, 2009;Morse, 2012). But CCS has foundered in practice, with just one plant in operation (Markusson, Gjefsen, Stephens, & Tyfield, 2017), while modeling of the potential of CCS consistently concludes that its ability to significantly reduce radiative forcing is heavily dependent on it being rapidly implemented at scale (Davis et al, 2010;Haftendorn, Kemfert, & Holz, 2012;Myhrvold & Caldeira, 2012;Sathre, Gustaysson, & Truong, 2017;Sathre & Masanet, 2012), and even if this implementation at scale were achieved, CO 2 is just one of the pollutants produced by coal combustion which contribute to radiative forcing (Shindell & Faluvegi, 2010). This suggests that Markusson et al (2012) were correct to argue that carbon pricing alone would never generate sufficient incentive for CCS.…”

Section: 'Clean' Coal Is a Distraction But Studying It Is Revealingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal and climate change

Edwards

2019

WIREs Climate Change

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This overview adopts a critical social science perspective to examine the state of play and potential futures for coal in the context of climate change. It introduces key trends in coal consumption, production and trade, before reviewing the relevant literature. Finding surprisingly little literature directly focused on coal and climate change, it appraises existing work and highlights key areas for future research. In addition to established literatures on the situated politics of coal and the political economy of coal, new work calling for demand side policies to be supplemented with supply side policies highlights the increasing importance of normative contestations in driving debates over coal. This suggests that scholars must engage much more directly with climate change as an issue, and particularly with the place of coal in a just transition. Because of coal's mammoth contribution to climate change and the complex political economy which drives its production and consumption, it is likely that coal will remain at the center of difficult questions about the relationship between climate action and development for quite some time. This article is categorized under: Climate and Development > Decoupling Emissions from Development

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“…'Fixing' is also often used pejoratively, evoking concern over the idea of a 'technical fix (Fleming 2010;Markusson et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In a broken world: Towards an ethics of repair in the Anthropocene

McLaren

2018

The Anthropocene Review

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With the power to break earth systems comes responsibility to care for them, and arguably to repair them. Climate geoengineering is one possible approach. But repair is under-researched and underspecified in this context. In a first attempt to establish basic principles for the obligations of repair in the Anthropocene, five disciplines of repair are briefly reviewed: reconstruction of historic buildings, remediation of human bodies, restoration of ecosystems; reconfiguration of cultural materials and artifacts; and reconciliation of broken relationships. In each case ethical practices and debates are described to help identify key themes and challenges in understanding repair.Three interlinked pragmatic ethics or virtues of repair in the Anthropocene are suggested: care, integrity, and legibility. Implications of for climate geoengineering, climate politics, and the possibilities of climate justice are explored. Climate repair is defended against objections that it would exacerbate a moral hazard effect, or frame climate responses as politically conservative.

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The political economy of technical fixes: The (mis)alignment of clean fossil and political regimes

Abstract: The political economy of technical fixes: the (mis)alignment of clean fossil and political regimes

Cited by 63 publications

References 54 publications

“Fixing” Climate Change by Mortgaging the Future: Negative Emissions, Spatiotemporal Fixes, and the Political Economy of Delay

“Fixing” Climate Change by Mortgaging the Future: Negative Emissions, Spatiotemporal Fixes, and the Political Economy of Delay

Coal and climate change

In a broken world: Towards an ethics of repair in the Anthropocene

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