In Cape Town, South Africa, on June 19, 2018, C40 Cities released āThe Future We Donāt WantāHow Climate Change Could Impact the Worldās Greatest Cities,ā a report about how billions of āpeople in thousands of cities around the world will be at risk from climate-related heatwaves, drought, flooding, food shortages, blackouts, and social inequality by mid-century without bold and urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissionsā (C40 Cities).1 The impacts are deeply concerning: āHeadline findings include that by 2050, 1.6 billion people living in over 970 cities, will be regularly exposed to extreme high temperatures, over 800 million people, living in 570 cities, will be vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal flooding, 650 million people, in over 500 cities, will be at risk of water shortages due to climate change, and 2.5 billion people will be living in over 1600 cities where national food supply is threatened by climate changeā (C40 Cities).2 However, the report also demonstrates how much can be done to mitigate these impacts, and provide āconcrete examples of bold climate solutions that cities are delivering, which, if adopted at-scale, could help prevent the worst impacts of climate changeā (C40 Cities).3 This report underlines the critical role that cities play in mitigating climate through transitioning to a cross-sector renewable energy system, retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency (e.g., energy passive buildings) and energy generation (energy plus buildings), and developing sustainable transportation and urban infrastructure for low/zero-carbon cities. As this report highlights the sense of urgency, āgiven our recent global shift into irreversible and serious climate change, ... [these actions on the part of cities, states/provinces and countries] must continue to develop and deepen, and they must do so quickly, if we are to limit the damage of climate destabilization.ā (Lysack, 2015, 445)4
The āglobal agenda of sustainability needs to be focused on ensuring the health and well-being of the biosphere on the planet, upon which all human endeavour is foundedā (Lysack, 2008, 99).5 But how can cities accomplish this massive undertaking, and what cities could act as role models in transitioning to renewable energy, climate protection leadership , and hubs for innovation which are making significant progress toward these objectives? Is there a larger economic and policy context which facilitates and encourages the renewable energy transition and climate leadership of cities, rather than impedes or inhibits renewable energy and climate protection leadership? What are the key economic resources and analytic tools in Karl Polanyiās work, and later, in the policy initiatives of ordo-liberalism as a foundation for the renewable energy transition in Germany that have contributed to these economic approaches that support leadership and innovation in renewable energy transition and climate protection leadership? And finally, how do cities move forward effectively and strategically in their transition to renewable energy and climate protection and their engagement of citizens in municipal communities as direct economic participants? In this chapter, by way of illustration, I will explore the accomplishments and progress of two leading cities in Germany involved with a renewable energy transition and climate protection and the tools that they have used to move forward in their objectives for renewable energy and climate protection: the large city of Munich (1.4 million) through its municipal utility (Stadtwerke Munich, literally, city works ), and the smaller city of Bottrop, which is transitioning from a long coal history and fossil fuel-centered economy to becoming a city-leader in modelling a transition or renewable energy and climate protection.
Karl Polanyi: Restoring the Social and Environmental Dimensions of the Economy
In 1944, as World War II was winding down, two key texts on the economy and politics appeared in the public domain: (1) Hayekās The Road to Serfdom, which became the signature text for unfettered and deregulated market economies and the inspiration for successive waves of economic neo-liberalization over the decades; and more importantly, (2) Polanyiās The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time , a lesser known book that embodies both a bold and detailed critique of unregulated market economies and their impacts on people and the environment as well as a compelling, historically grounded, and ethical economic alternative.
While Karl Polanyi lived in Vienna in the 1920s and early 1930s just prior to the rise of fascism, Polanyi developed his economic and political insights in an āintellectual salonā discussing economics with Hayek and other economists. Polanyi was not only critical of Hayek and his economic/political neoliberalism (unregulated market, so-called free market economies, dominance of the economy in society, primacy of individual choice), but Polanyi developed an alternative perspective and critique of the modern economy and its impacts on both society and the environment in his best-known book, The Great Transformation. Polanyi explored the development and negative impacts of three macro-economic events: (1) Emergence of self-regulating market as it dis-embeds itself from its normal embeddedness in its social and environmental setting as it emerged during the Industrial Revolution. The dis-embedded dominance of the modern self-regulating market is in stark contrast to the historical norm where the economy is embedded in society and environment , rather than society and environment being embedded in the economy, as it is in contemporary society (2) Polanyi also explores the effects of the commodification of land , labour , and money as key structural compon...