How universities can drive the way to fossil-fuel free society
How universities can drive the way to fossil-fuel free society
01/03/2024
The world’s political leaders took an historic step forward at COP28 to confront climate breakdown but two months on how can universities play an active role in ensuring these global-reaching changes actually happen?
The Global Stocktake, the document outlining the key outcomes of the 28th COP held in Dubai in December, contains the historic pledge that the world will transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
Dubai is best known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and for being built on the revenue derived from the substantial oil and natural gas reserves in the region.
If the powers of such a region have resolved to steer the world to transition away from the use of fossil fuels, there perhaps remains some hope in the rest of the planet making necessary change in the fundamental basis of our societies and economies.
However, the nature of the change, suggested by this seemingly simple pledge, is not to be underestimated. Any historian would confirm the huge impact that the discovery of fossil energy reserves has had on humanity, society, and the economy. Early ‘environmentalists’ such as Thomas Malthus were worried about not having enough food and resources, in the face of a growing word population. They could not have imagined how industrialisation and the progress of modern science – propelled by newly accessible fossil energy resources –laid the building blocks of prosperity and growth for humanity.
The chances provided by this source of energy buried deep underneath the Earth’s surface were of course not open to all. Opportunities to benefit were shaped by struggle for finance, for territorial access and for access to technology, and inspired and continue to inspire colonial conquests, trade deals and wars.
Our societies are not only built on the benefits of oil and gas, but are fundamentally shaped by the institutions regulating access to them. Without organised access to investment in extractive technology, fossil fuels would have stayed in the ground. Without guaranteed access to profit, investors would not have committed to funding extraction. To sustain the flow of income, the generated revenue has to be spent profitably. This requires societal organisation that supports economic growth by guaranteeing access to finance and channelling, in an organised and reliable manner, revenue to profitable uses to pay dividends. From the early industrial era, fossil fuels and the quest to access them have fundamentally shaped our economic institutions and processes.
The impact of fossil fuels on the power structures of today’s society is therefore huge. Oil companies, banks, and institutional investors are just the beginning. Urban geographers describe how cities have emerged largely as manifestations of surplus industrial revenue in need of investment. Our modern convenience lifestyles are informed by constantly emerging new ‘needs’ that can only be satisfied by consumption, generating revenue for the economy. We are all caught in the fossil fuel-driven economies that we now rely on for survival.
What then, will happen now that the world has suddenly decided to transition away from fossil fuels? This is a key question that the COP28 left unanswered. In fact, the Global Stocktake document contains much that muddies the water around how exactly the promised transition is going to take place. We can see a commitment to triple renewable energy provision, and to double energy efficiency by 2030. But searching the text for a step-by-step plan is not helpful.
It is wise to look to national governments and their regional groups for milestones of progress. But critics have pointed out that the Global Stocktake document is particularly weak when it comes to financing, governance measures such as carbon pricing and technology exchange. This is where the grip of the fossil-economy elite is arguably still visible. Crucially, while the transition away from fossil fuels and phasing down (notably, not out) of coal has to happen in ‘a fair, equitable and orderly manner’ the word ‘rapid’ is missing. There is no accountability for the pace of the transition. This is a dangerous predicament given the IPCC’s warnings regarding the world possibly already having reached 1.5 degrees Celsius of heating. And certainly not something that the people of small island states, river deltas and equatorial states can live with.
So, despite the hopeful sign in the necessary announcement that the era of dependence on fossil fuels is ending, the struggle to stop climate breakdown is far from over. The role of civil society, universities, interest groups and the public sector of each nation state remains central in driving progress. We will need to imagine into being a society that is fundamentally different to that shaped by fossil fuel-driven industrialism. We have many reasons to take on this task which aligns with addressing global inequalities.
As a part of the civil society, universities need to play a key role in addressing uncomfortable questions about the necessary change in institutions, power structures and priorities. Why, for example, are we in a situation where we have reached ‘over capacity’ in wind generated energy, and households are having to pay extra for wind farms to remain idle on the windiest days when the general grid cannot accommodate the power they are generating? We are presently living in a society where economic value rarely matches values that actually hold meaning in people’s everyday lives. Tackling this difference will be a central part of figuring out the new rules of the game for a post-fossil fuel society. Power structures will have to change as will economic institutions and priorities. This will not please everyone.
At Middlesex, we need to ask, what will our contribution to this be? How can we move beyond working with solutions such as the SDGs and the Global Stocktake that talk the talk but do not walk the walk? How can we make a meaningful contribution at the frontier of knowledge production for a fossil energy free society?
Meri Juntti, Associate Professor of Environmental Governance, Middlesex University Department of Law and Social Sciences
How universities can drive the way to fossil-fuel free society
The Global Stocktake, the document outlining the key outcomes of the 28th COP held in Dubai in December, contains the historic pledge that the world will transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
Dubai is best known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and for being built on the revenue derived from the substantial oil and natural gas reserves in the region.
If the powers of such a region have resolved to steer the world to transition away from the use of fossil fuels, there perhaps remains some hope in the rest of the planet making necessary change in the fundamental basis of our societies and economies.
However, the nature of the change, suggested by this seemingly simple pledge, is not to be underestimated. Any historian would confirm the huge impact that the discovery of fossil energy reserves has had on humanity, society, and the economy. Early ‘environmentalists’ such as Thomas Malthus were worried about not having enough food and resources, in the face of a growing word population. They could not have imagined how industrialisation and the progress of modern science – propelled by newly accessible fossil energy resources –laid the building blocks of prosperity and growth for humanity.
The chances provided by this source of energy buried deep underneath the Earth’s surface were of course not open to all. Opportunities to benefit were shaped by struggle for finance, for territorial access and for access to technology, and inspired and continue to inspire colonial conquests, trade deals and wars.
Our societies are not only built on the benefits of oil and gas, but are fundamentally shaped by the institutions regulating access to them. Without organised access to investment in extractive technology, fossil fuels would have stayed in the ground. Without guaranteed access to profit, investors would not have committed to funding extraction. To sustain the flow of income, the generated revenue has to be spent profitably. This requires societal organisation that supports economic growth by guaranteeing access to finance and channelling, in an organised and reliable manner, revenue to profitable uses to pay dividends. From the early industrial era, fossil fuels and the quest to access them have fundamentally shaped our economic institutions and processes.
The impact of fossil fuels on the power structures of today’s society is therefore huge. Oil companies, banks, and institutional investors are just the beginning. Urban geographers describe how cities have emerged largely as manifestations of surplus industrial revenue in need of investment. Our modern convenience lifestyles are informed by constantly emerging new ‘needs’ that can only be satisfied by consumption, generating revenue for the economy. We are all caught in the fossil fuel-driven economies that we now rely on for survival.
What then, will happen now that the world has suddenly decided to transition away from fossil fuels? This is a key question that the COP28 left unanswered. In fact, the Global Stocktake document contains much that muddies the water around how exactly the promised transition is going to take place. We can see a commitment to triple renewable energy provision, and to double energy efficiency by 2030. But searching the text for a step-by-step plan is not helpful.
It is wise to look to national governments and their regional groups for milestones of progress. But critics have pointed out that the Global Stocktake document is particularly weak when it comes to financing, governance measures such as carbon pricing and technology exchange. This is where the grip of the fossil-economy elite is arguably still visible. Crucially, while the transition away from fossil fuels and phasing down (notably, not out) of coal has to happen in ‘a fair, equitable and orderly manner’ the word ‘rapid’ is missing. There is no accountability for the pace of the transition. This is a dangerous predicament given the IPCC’s warnings regarding the world possibly already having reached 1.5 degrees Celsius of heating. And certainly not something that the people of small island states, river deltas and equatorial states can live with.
So, despite the hopeful sign in the necessary announcement that the era of dependence on fossil fuels is ending, the struggle to stop climate breakdown is far from over. The role of civil society, universities, interest groups and the public sector of each nation state remains central in driving progress. We will need to imagine into being a society that is fundamentally different to that shaped by fossil fuel-driven industrialism. We have many reasons to take on this task which aligns with addressing global inequalities.
As a part of the civil society, universities need to play a key role in addressing uncomfortable questions about the necessary change in institutions, power structures and priorities. Why, for example, are we in a situation where we have reached ‘over capacity’ in wind generated energy, and households are having to pay extra for wind farms to remain idle on the windiest days when the general grid cannot accommodate the power they are generating? We are presently living in a society where economic value rarely matches values that actually hold meaning in people’s everyday lives. Tackling this difference will be a central part of figuring out the new rules of the game for a post-fossil fuel society. Power structures will have to change as will economic institutions and priorities. This will not please everyone.
At Middlesex, we need to ask, what will our contribution to this be? How can we move beyond working with solutions such as the SDGs and the Global Stocktake that talk the talk but do not walk the walk? How can we make a meaningful contribution at the frontier of knowledge production for a fossil energy free society?
Meri Juntti, Associate Professor of Environmental Governance, Middlesex University Department of Law and Social Sciences
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash