Trasformismo or transformation? The global political economy of energy transitions

Abstract

What does IPE have to contribute to pressing policy and academic debates about the urgently required transition to a low carbon global economy? Despite the obviously global, political and economic dimensions of such a transition, insights from IPE have yet to be brought to bear on the question of what form such a transition might take: the relations of power which will frustrate or enable it; the historical precedents for previous transformations in dominant structures of production, finance and technology in the global economy; and the potentially central role of the state and institutions of global governance. This article seeks to contribute to the analysis of transitions grounded in different strands of literature from neo-Gramscian and historical materialist IPE and political economy more broadly. It focuses, in turn, on the role of the state in transitions; the ways in which the globalization of the global economy structures the possibility and likely form of transitions; and the role of global governance institutions in key energy and economic domains. It calls for energy to take up its rightful place as a lens for understanding and revising orthodox comprehensions of political, economic and social processes.