Growing our way out of fossil fuels? The ecological political economy of ‘green growth’ attempts in the European Union

Abstract

Alarming evidence of accelerating human impact on planetary life support systems has prompted a seemingly comprehensive overhaul of global energy systems. Broad political alliances are coalescing around the green growth agenda, promising to phase out fossil fuels by decoupling economic activity from environmental impact. This presentation, based on a recently published doctoral monograph, discusses whether new energy systems are currently replacing or complementing extractive industries in the European Union (EU) – an ostensible global environmental leader – by asking: why, and with what consequences, does the EU’s green transition rest on the political economy of green growth? Developing an ecological political economy perspective, the monograph investigates the compromises and contradictions behind alleged win-win solutions in EU’s green transition strategies through three case studies: industrial policy, solar photovoltaics, and hydrogen. The analysis reveals an increasingly lopsided transition strategy; one that tips the scales toward ‘growth’ at the expense of ‘green’, and ‘security’ at the expense of reductions in resource throughput.