Low-Carbon Society for a Green Economy

The “Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy” recently published the Special Topic on “Low-Carbon Society for a Green Economy”, which is edited by Nay Htun, Yi Jiang, Devinder Mahajan, Dirk Messner, and Richard Templer.

This special volume complements the special volume “Energy Pathways to a Low-Carbon Society”, which was published in 2010. Since then, the much anticipated event Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro and an International Energy Agency (IEA) report on energy technology concluded in June. In late 2011, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General launched the “Sustainable Energy for All" (SE4ALL) initiative and declared 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. SE4ALL has three aspirational goals to be achieved by 2030: (1) ensure universal access to modern energy services, (2) invest in energy efficiency, and (3) double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Complementing this UN initiative, a recently released report from the IEA, “Energy Technology Perspective (ETP) 2012,” describes in detail technologies to achieve not only 2-DS but also intermediate 4-DS, to avoid the 6-DS scorched Earth case. ETP 2012 makes a pressing case for a link between energy security and low-carbon economy and progress made on clean energy deployment in nine world regions as well as projections for 2050. The commitments of the United States, other nations, private enterprises, and several non-government organizations (NGOs) were announced on the margins of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and included over 2 x 10⁹ dollars in grants, loans, and loan guarantees to fund activities that meet the objectives of SE4ALL.

This special topic, titled “Low-Carbon Society for a Green Economy,” not only complements the 2010 special volume but also embraces the SE4ALL initiative. In this first instalment of six papers, the authors cover four major topics. They are (1) low-carbon agriculture and food, (2) low-carbon buildings and cities, (3) low-carbon energy, and (4) low-carbon water.

Under topic 3, Claus Leggewie of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) and Dirk Messner of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) consider only two great transformations in the history of human mankind to be comparable to the great transformation towards a global low-carbon economy faced now: the Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. This paper discusses different social, economic, and cultural theories which might help us to understand this far-reaching socio-economic transformation. Based on their analysis, Leggewie and Messner identify five specific arenas of change in which low-carbon dynamics occur: networks of change agents, policy regimes, norms and values, innovation and technology, and patterns of international cooperation and competition. The authors argue that the main elements which will enable the transformation to be made to climate compatibility are already emerging. From a certain point, a cumulative process with its own dynamic may occur: transformation nurturing transformation. On the other hand, the speed and geographical spread of the low-carbon dynamics are still not sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change.

Taken together, the compilation of six papers in this volume make a pressing case for urgent implementation of low-carbon technologies to help moderate the effect of increasing levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Reiterating the quote from the 2010 Introduction, “This volume is simply meant to endorse a fundamental premise in energy usage: minimizing CO₂ emissions through energy efficiency and/or low-carbon technologies is simply sensible. The low-carbon pathways discussed in the contributed papers, when implemented, will help stretch our finite sources of energy including fossil fuels, an important step towards meeting the needs of increasing global population.” This view is as pertinent and relevant now as it was then.

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The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) is one of the leading Think Tanks for development policy world-wide. It is based in the UN City of Bonn. DIE builds bridges between theory and practice and works within international research networks. The key to DIE’s success is its institutional independence, which is guaranteed by the Institute’s founding statute. Since its founding in 1964, DIE has based its work on the interplay between Research, Policy Advice and Training. These three areas complement each other and are the factors responsible for the Institute’s distinctive profile.
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