The Geopolitics of Climate Change and Cleantech

BGA Senior Advisor Alex Capri released a new report on the geopolitics of climate change and cleantech. The report, published by the Hinrich Foundation, was published on January 31.

In the report, which is part of a wider series on techno-nationalism, Capri argues that a series of challenges, including nationalist impulses and narrow, domestic-focused thinking, are giving rise of what might be termed a “new kind of climate-driven realpolitik.” That “climate realpolitik” is likely to complicate the need for urgent climate action, with the Paris Agreement setting the target of holding global warming to a range of 1.5 to 2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the year 2050 and at least $4 trillion of annual spending on the development and deployment of cleantech by the year 2030.

“As such, climate realpolitik will complicate how and where cleantech is developed, produced, traded, and how it will be leveraged as a political and economic tool,” the report summary reads. “Cleantech assets represent yet another manifestation of 21st century techno-nationalism: a neo-mercantilist mindset that links the technological capabilities of a state’s key actors and institutions to its national security and economic strength, and socio-political stability,” it adds.

You can read the full report here.