Breaking Consensus, Transforming Metabolisms: Notes on direct-action against fossil fuels through Urban Political Ecology

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

2 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

This article discusses the politics of “direct- action” against fossil fuels put forward by climate justice movements, focusing in particular on the tactic of the blockade. Drawing on the conceptual toolkit of Urban Political Ecology, the argument moves from a critique of the consensual regime of climate change governance to highlight conflict and dissent as central forces for the transformation of the socio-ecological metabolisms structuring the capitalist urbanization of nature—of which fossil fuels constitute the lifeblood. This approach shifts the debate around climate change politics from an issue of technological transition to one of metabolic transformation. On this basis, the article proposes a characterization of direct-action against fossil fuels as expressions of metabolic activism: instances of grassroots eco-political engagement that aim to break consensus by disrupting capitalist-driven metabolic relations while also experimenting with alternative values, knowledges, spaces, and socio-material relations. To ground these reflections, the article offers an account of the Swedish climate justice coalition Fossilgasfällan and of its successful three-year campaign, culminated in a blockade, to halt the expansion of the gas terminal of Gothenburg port.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftSocial Text
Vol/bind40
Udgave nummer150
Sider (fra-til)135–155
ISSN0164-2472
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022
Udgivet eksterntJa

Bibliografisk note

This is a pre-print of the final draft - the full version is forthcoming in Social Text issue 150. This is an output of the Occupy Climate Change! project, support for work on this article was provided by FORMAS (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) under the National Research Programme on Climate (Contract: 2017-01962_3).

Funding Information:
Support for work on this article was provided by FORMAS (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) under the National Research Programme on Climate (contract 2017-01962_3) and under project 2018-02800, “Global Attribution Models, Mediation and Mobilisation (GAMES).” 1. Bathiany et al., “Climate Models.” 2. Höök and Tang, “Depletion of Fossil Fuels”; Sippel et al., “Climate Change Now Detectable.” 3. Machin, Negotiating Climate Change. 4. Kakenmaster, “Articulating Resistance.” 5. Carton, “Carbon Unicorns”; Watt, “The Fantasy of Carbon Offsetting.” 6. Lazarus, Erickson, and Tempest, “Supply-Side Climate Policy.” 7. Malm, How to Blow Up a Pipeline; Temper et al., “Movements Shaping Climate Futures”; Piggot, “The Influence of Social Movements.” 8. Swyngedouw, “Apocalypse Forever?” 9. Kenis and Lievens, “Searching for ‘the Political.’” 10. Walker, Environmental Justice. 11. Rosewarne, Goodman, and Pearse, Climate Action Upsurge. 12. Chatterton, Featherstone, and Routledge, “Articulating Climate Justice.” 13. Environmental Justice Atlas, “Blockadia.” 14. Klein, This Changes Everything. 15. Temper et al., “Movements Shaping Climate Futures.” The review also reports 278 conflicts related to low-carbon-energy projects. 16. Bassey, “Leaving the Oil in the Soil.” 17. Le Billon and Kristoffersen, “Just Cuts for Fossil Fuels?” 18. Piggot, “The Influence of Social Movements,” 1. 19. Misutka et al., “Processes for Retrenching Logics.” 20. Nace et al., “The New Gas Boom.” 21. SEI, IISD, ODI, Climate Analytics, CICERO, and UNEP, The Production

Funding Information:
Besides defending local livelihoods, direct action against fossil fuels can be seen as a supply-side strategy of climate mitigation from the bottom up.17 According to Piggot, “analysis suggests that a large portion of global fossil fuel reserves will need to remain unburned to keep climate change ‘well below’ 2°C. . . . Yet, investment in fossil fuel infrastructure continues at a pace that is inconsistent with agreed climate goals, and no meaningful global policies exist to keep fossil fuels in the ground.”18 This has been the result of an organized pushback by the fossil fuel industry, employing a variety of tactics to keep its business afloat, including political influence, climate change skepticism, and co-option of local groups.19 While neither the European Green Deal (EGD) nor the European Commission energy plans promote the expansion of fossil fuels for climate reasons, the latest European Union list of prioritized energy infrastructure projects—the Projects of Common Interest (PCI), benefiting from simplified permissions and EU funding—includes thirty-two fossil gas projects eligible for funding of up to twenty-nine billion euros. Since the PCI lists were introduced in 2014, 42 percent of the total amount of funding has gone to fossil gas infrastructure projects.20Moreover, as a recent report shows,21 governments are planning to produce about 50 percent more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 2°C and 120 percent more than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C.22

Citationsformater