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What are the democratic requirements for effective climate action? how can 'climate democracy' be conceptualised?
Liberal democracies emerged on the back of fossil fuels, creating what Tim Mitchell called 'carbon democracy'. Three decades of climate policy have affirmed the controlling influence of fossil fuel interests. Runaway climate change now threatens the very foundations of social life. Today we face a very clear democratic question, of whether the fossil fuel sector has the right to determine the planet's climate future. Achieving global energy transformation at the scope and scale needed requires a democratic transformation, to overcome the stranglehold. This book examines these requirements. It debates the political constituencies, agendas and institutions that are emerging from climate crisis, comparing evidence of emergent themes. New claims are emerging, for 'green deals', 'climate justice', 'energy justice', 'energy democracy' and 'de-growth', reflecting a new intensity of contestation as climate change impacts deepen.
This book will be of great relevance to students, researchers and policymakers with an interest in comparative politics, democracy studies, climate change and environmental policies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.
List of contents
Introduction - 'Rage into action': from carbon democracy to climate democracy? 1. Reluctant transformers or reconsidering opposition to climate change mitigation? German think tanks between environmentalism and neoliberalism 2. Energy transition and dialectics: tracing discursive resistance to coal through discourse coalition in India 3. Democratizing global climate governance? The case of indigenous representation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4. Who wins and who loses from renewable energy transition? Large-scale solar, land, and livelihood in Karnataka, India 5. Legitimizing energy transitions through community participation: Germany and Australia at a crossroad 6. Comparing local energy conflicts in NSW Australia: moving to climate generosity 7. Climate camps and environmental movements: impacting the coal industry and practicing 'system change' 8. Climate movements in Germany, India, and Australia: dynamics of transition, transformation, and emergency 9. Climate, violence, resource extraction and ecological debt: global implications of an assassination on South Africa's coal mining belt
About the author
James Goodman is Professor in Social and Political Sciences at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney where he researches climate change and energy transitions. He is the co-author of the book
Beyond the Coal Rush and Decarbonising Electricity with Tom Morton.
Tom Morton is at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. He researches climate communication and is an award-winning documentary producer. He has co-authored the book,
Beyond the Coal Rush and Decarbonising Electricity with James Goodman.
Summary
This book examines these requirements. It debates the political constituencies, agendas and institutions that are emerging from climate crisis, comparing evidence of emergent themes. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.
