John A. Mathews
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804791502
- eISBN:
- 9780804793162
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804791502.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This book starts from the observation that the rise of China, India and other newly industrializing countries constitutes a triumph of industrialization in that it is lifting hundreds of millions of ...
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This book starts from the observation that the rise of China, India and other newly industrializing countries constitutes a triumph of industrialization in that it is lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. At the same time it confronts the “inconvenient truth” that the model of industrialization utilized so far, based on fossil fuels and extensive resource throughput, cannot scale to accommodate the needs of billions more people. Since it is unthinkable that China et al should be told that they are not allowed to grow their way out of poverty, the only solution lies in finding a new development model. This book argues that such a model is indeed being pursued – a “green growth” model – and that the principal exponent of such a transformation is China itself. It argues that the transformation is occurring not just at the level of macro policies but fundamentally at the level of new energy systems, new resource circulating systems, and new systems of eco-finance channeling investment in these new directions. Against those who hold that carbon taxes and carbon markets should be allowed to lead this transition, the book points to the efficacy of China’s approach in utilizing strong state interventions to guide the system onto a new, renewable (green) trajectory, even as it grows the coal-fired (black) trajectory as well. The book is neither optimistic nor pessimistic but realist in its evaluation of the forces unleashed, constituting a vast uncontrolled experiment whose outcome is anything but determined.Less
This book starts from the observation that the rise of China, India and other newly industrializing countries constitutes a triumph of industrialization in that it is lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. At the same time it confronts the “inconvenient truth” that the model of industrialization utilized so far, based on fossil fuels and extensive resource throughput, cannot scale to accommodate the needs of billions more people. Since it is unthinkable that China et al should be told that they are not allowed to grow their way out of poverty, the only solution lies in finding a new development model. This book argues that such a model is indeed being pursued – a “green growth” model – and that the principal exponent of such a transformation is China itself. It argues that the transformation is occurring not just at the level of macro policies but fundamentally at the level of new energy systems, new resource circulating systems, and new systems of eco-finance channeling investment in these new directions. Against those who hold that carbon taxes and carbon markets should be allowed to lead this transition, the book points to the efficacy of China’s approach in utilizing strong state interventions to guide the system onto a new, renewable (green) trajectory, even as it grows the coal-fired (black) trajectory as well. The book is neither optimistic nor pessimistic but realist in its evaluation of the forces unleashed, constituting a vast uncontrolled experiment whose outcome is anything but determined.
