1. The Political Economy of a
Green Revolution
Pol376: International Political Economy
April 2, 2012
Michael Lee
2. Summary
Global Warming
Possible solutions
Friedman and a “Green New Deal”
Obstacles to a Green Revolution
Ideational
Implementation
Political
International
A green opportunity?
4. What are the negative externalities of
filling up a tank of gas?
Global warming
Other pollutants
Foreign policy
Petro-dictatorship
Complexity
5. Hot, Flat and Crowded
Rise of China
Green new deal
Competitive advantage
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/04/10/maga
zine/1194817107532/the-power-of-green.html
Energy internet
Carbon tax/price floors
Regulation/incentives
6. Other approaches to climate change
Doing nothing
Cap and trade
Government intervention
Geo-engineering
10. Ontario wind energy as % of capacity:
variable energy generation, regular
demand
11. Does a green public lead to green
policies? (WVS)
Early 90s Late 90s Late 00s
France 54.4% 37.6% (no data)
China 82.4% 74.3% 73.7%
USA 63.9% 60.9% 49.8%
Canada 63.7% 58.1% 65.7%
12. Pricing carbon: a tough sell
USA
Cap and trade
http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/hou
se/1/477
Sectoral/regional costs
Canada
Green tax shift (carbon tax)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os5vXksQwts&
feature=relmfu
13. If you were building a political
coalition of green interests, what
would it look like?
14. Past international efforts
Global collective action problems
Montreal protocol (Ozone), 1987
Acid rain treaty (S02, NOx), 1991
http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/progress/arp03.
html
Kyoto protocol (C02), 1997
Copenhagen (C02), 2009
16. Why was Kyoto unsuccessful, while
previous agreements succeeded?
17. Country C02/person Status
US 18.9 Signed, did not
ratify
Canada 16.9 Ratified, dropped
out
Japan 9.8 Failed to meet
target
Germany 9.6 Met target
UK 8.9 Exceeded target
France 6 Exceeded target
21. Summary
Academic consensus may not translate into
public acceptance
Hard to implement
Tricky international and domestic
distributional politics