Andreas Malm
Associate professor
China as Chimney of the World: The Fossil Capital Hypothesis
Author
Summary, in English
What has caused the early 21st-century emissions explosion in China? Driving a global explosion, it appears to stand in some relation to processes of globalization, but these links have mostly remained unexplored. This article revisits some established frameworks for understanding the connection between globalization and environmental degradation and argues that they are insufficient for explaining the Chinese explosion. A new hypothesis is outlined, called "the fossil capital hypothesis." It proposes that globally mobile capital will tend to relocate production to countries with cheap and disciplined labor, but only through the accelerated consumption of fossil energy. Via three specified "effects," the inflow of global capital will therefore set off massive increases in CO2 emissions. The hypothesis is applied in a brief analysis of developments in China between 2001 and 2008, and in other Asian countries after the Chinese strike wave in 2010.
Department/s
- Human Ecology
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
146-177
Publication/Series
Organization & Environment
Volume
25
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Social and Economic Geography
Keywords
- CO2 emissions
- globalization
- China
- embodied emissions in trade
- labor
- fossil capital
- environmental Kuznets curve in reverse
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1552-7417