Climate Change

Phillip Anthony O’Hara
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Phillip Anthony O’Hara: Global Political Economy Research Unit

Chapter 5 in Principles of Institutional and Evolutionary Political Economy, 2022, pp 129-163 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to analyse climate change and ecological destruction through the prism of the some core general principles of institutional and evolutionary political economy. The chapter starts with the principle of historical specificity, and the various waves of climate change through successive cooler and warmer periods on planet Earth, including the most recent climate change escalation through the open circuit associated with the treadmill of production. Then we scrutinise the principle of contradiction associated with the disembedded economy, social costs, entropy and destructive creation. The principle of hegemony and uneven development is then explored through core-periphery dynamics, ecologically unequal exchange, metabolic rift and asymmetric global (in)justice. The principles of circular and cumulative causation (CCC) and uncertainty are then related to climate change dynamics through non-linear transformations, complex interaction of dominant variables, threshold effects, and tipping points. This introduces the principles of innovation and policy/governance, relating to the concept of shared socioeconomic pathways, and specifically the Green Road to Sustainability. The current path is inconsistent with solving the climate change conundrum, while the Green Road requires deepening plus more stringent structural changes in institutions and systems to reduce emissions more rapidly, in addition to adaptation to tipping points that emerge.

Keywords: Political economy; Principles; Climate change; Historical specificity; Ecological destruction; Greenhouse gasses; Contradiction; Hegemony & uneven development; Circular & cumulative causation; Uncertainty; Tipping points; Innovation; Policy & governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-4158-0_5

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