Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
Continuities and Change in IPE at the Start of the Twenty-first Century Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

34. Carbon Capitalism and World Order

Authors : Tim Di Muzio, Matt Dow

Published in: The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

This chapter offers an overview and critique of how mainstream theories in IR and IPE have treated the question of energy. Assuming a critical political economy perspective, we make three arguments. First, traditional theories have an inadequate understanding of the relationship between fossil fuel energy and the development of global capitalism and a liberal world order. Second, the capital as power approach offers a more illuminating perspective than its theoretical rivals. Third, the source and supply of world energy and energy systems are just as foundational as conflict and war, the state and society, and labour and capital in the (re-)making of the capitalist world order. As such, scholars must incorporate an appreciation for the role of non-renewable fossil fuel energy into future discussions of modern capitalism.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Natural Resources
next chapter Commodities
Footnotes
1
With minor exceptions, see Gill and Law 1988; Balaam and Dillman 2013; Di Muzio and Ovadia 2016.
 
2
Another branch of IPE energy literature is known as ‘resource curse’ theory/development, which is taken up by a variety of scholars and perspectives. See Auty 1993; Watts 2004; Zalik 2008; Obi 2010; McNeish and Logan 2012.
 
3
The value of Nokia is taken from the Financial Times 500 2008 and the value of Nokia at the time of this writing is taken from Google Finance (accessed 26 September 2017).
 
4
Wallace Witkowski (2015) ‘Global stock market cap has doubled since QE’s start’ Market Watch http://​www.​marketwatch.​com/​story/​global-stock-market-cap-has-doubled-since-qes-start-2015-02-12 (27 September 2017).
 
5
All numbers are rounded. This does not include nationally owned oil and gas producers like Aramco, Gazprom, National Iranian Oil Company, and so on. See Di Muzio 2012.
 
6
http://​www.​nexindex.​com/​ (accessed 20 January 2017).
 
7
‘OECD Europe declining to 22.2% in 2016 from 49.1% in 1971, while the OECD Americas dropped from 41.0% in 1971 to 27.1% in 2016. Meanwhile in OECD Asia Oceania, generation from coal has risen from 18.0% in 1971 to 39.4% in 2016’ (IEA 2017a: 8).
 
8
‘China, which lifted its investment by 17% to $102.9 billion, or 36% of the world total’ (UNEP 2016: 11).
 
Literature
Abramsky, K., and M. De Angelis. 2008–9. Energy Crisis (Among Others) Is In The Air. The Commoner 13 (Winter): 1–14.
Albo, G. 2007. The Limits of Eco-Localism: Scale, Strategy, Socialism. In Socialist Register 2007: Coming to Terms with Nature, ed. L. Panitch, C. Leys, B. Harriss-White, E. Alvater, and G. Albo, 237–263. London: Merlin Press.
Altvater, E. 2007. The Social and Natural Environment of Fossil Capitalism. In The Socialist Register 2007: Coming to Terms with Nature, ed. Leo Panitch and Colin Leys. London: Merlin Press.
Angus, I. 2016. Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Auty, R. 1993. Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis. London: Routledge.
Bachram, H. 2004. Climate Fraud and Carbon Colonialism: The New Trade in Greenhouse Gases. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 15 (4): 10–12.
Balaam, D.N., and B. Dillman. 2013. Introduction to International Political Economy. 6th ed. New York: Routledge.
Brand, U. 2012. Green Economy – The Next Oxymoron? GAIA 21 (1): 28–32.
Braudel, Fernand. 1983. The Wheels of Commerce. Civilization and Capitalism 15th to 18th Century, trans. Sian Reynolds. London: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd.
Bridle, R. and L. Kitson. 2014. The Impact of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies on Renewable Electricity Generation, The International Institute for Sustainable Development. Geneva Switzerland.
Conway, E.M., and N. Oreskes. 2010. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Copenhagen Accord. 2009. United Nations: Framework Convention on Climate Change. Demark: Copenhagen.
Di Muzio, T. 2012. Capitalizing a Future Unsustainable: Finance, Energy and the Fate of Market Civilization. Review of International Political Economy 19 (3): 363–388.
———. 2015. Carbon Capitalism: Energy, Social Reproduction and World Order. London: Rowman and Littlefield International.
Di Muzio, Tim, and Matt Dow. 2017. Uneven and Combined Confusion: On the Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the West. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 30 (1): 3–22.
Di Muzio, T., and J.S. Ovadia. 2016. Energy, Capitalism and World Order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dickins, A. 2006. The Evolution of International Political Economy. International Affairs 82 (3): 479–492.
Dow, M. 2016. The Unsustainable Nature of Petro-Market Civilization in Canada. In Energy, Capitalism and World Order, ed. Tim Di Muzio and Jesse Salah Ovadia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Elhefnawy, N. 2008. The Impending Oil Shock. Survival 50 (2): 37–66.
Foster, J.B. 1999. Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology. American Journal of Sociology 105 (2): 366–405.
Gill, S., ed. 2011. Global Crises and the Crisis of Global Leadership. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Gill, S., and D. Law. 1988. The Global Political Economy: Perspectives, Problems and Policies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hancock, K.J., and V. Vivoda. 2014. International Political Economy: A Field Born of the OPEC Crisis Returns to its Energy Roots. Energy Research & Social Science 1: 206–216.
Harvey, D. 2003. The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hawken, P. 1993. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. New York: Harper Business.
Heede, Richard. 2014. Tracing Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emissions to Fossil Fuel and Cement Producers, 1854–C2010. Climate Change 122 (1-C2): 229–C 241.
Hughes, L., and P.Y. Lipscy. 2013. The Politics of Energy. The Annual Review of Political Science 16: 449–469.
IEA. 2012. World Energy Outlook 2012, France, Paris.
———. 2013. Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2013, France, Paris.
———. 2014. World Energy Outlook 2014, France, Paris.
———. 2017a. Coal Information Overview 2017, France, Paris.
———. 2017b. Oil Information Overview 2017, France, Paris.
———. 2017c. World Energy Balance Overview 2017, France, Paris.
Keohane, R and J.S. Nye, Jr. [1997] 2011. Power & Interdependence, 4th edn. New York: Pearson.
Klare, M. 2002. Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York: Macmillan.
———. 2009. Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. New York: Holt.
Labban, M. 2008. Space, Oil and Capital. London: Routledge.
Levy, W.J. 1982. In Oil Strategy and Politics, 1941–1981, ed. Melvin A. Conant. Colorado: Westview Press.
Lovins, H.L., and B. Cohen. 2011. Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change. New York: Hill and Wang.
Malm, A. 2013. The Origins of Fossil Capital: From Water to Steam in the British Cotton Industry. Historical Materialism 21 (1): 15–68.
———. 2016. Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming. London: Verso.
McNeish, J.A., and O. Logan. 2012. Flammable Societies: Studies on the Socio-Economics of Oil and Gas. London: Pluto Press.
Mulligan, S. 2010a. Energy, Environment, and Security: Critical Links in a Post-Peak World. Global Environmental Politics 19 (4): 79–100.
———. 2010b. Reassessing the Crisis: Ecology and Liberal International Relations. Alternatives 35: 137–162.
Nasiritousiin, N. 2017. Fossil Fuel Emitters and Climate Change: Unpacking the Governance Activities of Large Oil and Gas Companies. Environmental Politics 26 (4): 621–647.
Newell, P., and M. Peterson. 2010. Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nitzan, J., and S. Bichler. 2002. The Global Political Economy of Israel. London: Pluto Press.
———. 2009. Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder. London: Routledge.
Obi, C.I. 2010. Oil as the “Curse” of Conflict in Africa: Peering Through Smoke and Mirrors. Review of African Political Economy 37 (126): 483–495.
Painter, D.S. 1986. Oil and the American Century: The Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Oil Policy, 1941–1954. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schwartzman, David. 2012. A Critique of Degrowth and Its Politics. Capitalism Nature Socialism 23 (1): 119–C125.
Smil, V. 2013. Reducing the Carbon and Sulfur Load of the Atmosphere. GAiA 22 (4): 255–262.
Stokes, D. 2007. Blood for Oil? Global Capital, Counter-insurgency and the Dual Logic of American Energy Security. Review of International Studies 33: 245–264.
Stokes, D., and S. Raphael. 2010. Global Energy Security and American Hegemony. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tienhaara, Kyla. 2014. Varieties of Green Capitalism: Economy and Environment in the Wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Environmental Politics 23 (2): 187–C204.
Underhill, G.R.D. 2000. State, Market, and Global Political Economy: Genealogy of an (Inter-?) Discipline. International Affairs 76 (4): 805–824.
UNDP. 2000. World Energy Assessment: Energy and the Challenge of Sustainability. New York: United Nations Development Programme.
———. 2007. Human Development Report 2007/8: Fighting Climate Change, Human Solidarity in a Divided World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UNEP. 2011. Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. Nairobi: UNEP.
UNFCCC. 2016. Paris Agreement. Paris, France.
Urry, J. 2013. Societies Beyond Oil: Oil Dregs and Social Futures. London: Zed Books.
Watts, Michael J. 2004. Resource Curse? Governmentality, Oil and Power in the Niger Delta Nigeria. Geopolitics 9 (1): 50–80.
Xenos, N. 1987. Liberalism and the Postulate of Scarcity. Political Theory 15 (2): 225–243.
Yergin, D. 1991. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. New York: Free Press.
———. 2011. The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. New York: Penguin Press.
Zalik, A. 2008. Liquefied Natural Gas and Fossil Capitalism. Monthly Review 60 (6): 41–53.
Metadata
Title
Carbon Capitalism and World Order
Authors
Tim Di Muzio
Matt Dow
Copyright Year
2019
Book
The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-45442-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-45443-0

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45443-0_34