Ecological modernisation and renewable energy

摘要

How is it that renewable energy has grown, and in what circumstances has renewable energy developed most effectively? David Toke believes that the answer is a political one, and one that requires analysis of history: history of empirical facts and history of thought. His focus of the development of thought is ecological modernisation theory: the idea that economic development and environmental protection can be combined as a way of conducting good business, of producing 'positive sum' solutions whereby economic development is increased rather than decreased by environmental protection, and where policy conceptualises environmental pollution as a matter of inefficiency. Modernisation occupies a pivotal role in all kinds of transformation, but existing interpretations of ecological modernisation, the author believes, are unsuitable for the renewable energy case.