Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

monetary union, and the promotion of scientific and technological
advance) and wealth distributing and quality of life ones (sustainable
development, cohesion and quality of environment). A modernised socioeconomic
model has to encompass both and, in doing so, various “justices”
will have to be confronted:
n Social in the contemporary senses elaborated in previous Policy
Network studies (see, for example, Giddens et al) 6 encompassing
new balances of risks and an emphasis on incentives and
empowerment, as well as distributive transfers.
n Carbon as increasingly discussed by NGOs that are deeply skeptical
about the demands from richer countries that others should reduce
their emissions.
n Inter-generational when thinking about the underlying definition
of sustainable development.
n Developmental in balancing the evident priority that emerging
economies give to reaching the higher income levels needed to
make progress and to alleviate mass poverty, while cajoling them
into accepting environmental commitments.
n Knowledge in recognition of the imperative of more rapid innovation
and its implications for the spread of intellectual property. In
particular, is there a case for knowledge aid, as opposed to cash and
technology transfers?
Towards a low-carbon paradigm
There is a growing consensus around the proposition that the imperative
of carbon abatement should become the over-arching theme for EU
economic governance in the next two decades. Effecting a transition to a
low-carbon economy, as a response to the threat of climate change, has
now become recognised as perhaps the greatest governance challenge of
the 21st Century. At one level it is beguilingly simple. Accepting the
growing scientific consensus that it is emissions of anthropogenic (manmade)
greenhouse gases that are to blame for global warming, the solution
is to cut them radically. But that is where the problems start. Who pays for
the vast investments that are needed? How should the distributive
consequences of higher energy costs, possibly accentuating “fuel poverty”
be managed? Among the diverse scientific, engineering and economic
approaches, which should be preferred and in what sequence?
Chapter 11 – Iain Begg 155