Event summary by Laura Watson

This week, we were incredibly privileged to be joined by world-leading public intellectual and scholar, Professor Noam Chomsky, to discuss the intersection of neoliberalism, democracy and the climate emergency.
 
Professor Chomsky began by emphasising the well-known, scientifically proven position that it is time to panic about climate change. It is also time to act: we know what the solutions are, and we know that they are feasible and within our grasp. However, it must also be recognised that there is resistance to change fossil fuel companies, parts of the media and, in the United States, from the Republican Party.
 
The practice of neoliberalism can be traced back to the 1970s, based around the transfer of decision-making power from accountable governments to unaccountable private entities, which are encouraged to pursue profit at the expense of all else. Recently, former President of the United States, Donald Trump, further extended neoliberalism in American by calling for increased power for businesses, claiming that this would create a more efficient economic system. However, the recent weather-induced catastrophe in Texas is a key example of how neoliberalism's lack of regulation, and its market-led, consumer-choice-centred approach has created a system vulnerable to collapse.
 
Today, although the world is in many ways different, Professor Chomsky asserted we (primarily in Western Europe and North America) find ourselves in a similar position to that of the 1920s: we face the choice of whether to move towards a more radical form of democracy, or to continue with neoliberalism. Chomsky asserted that choosing the former is crucial, if we are to avoid facing an end to humanity.
 
Questions
 
How can we address short-termism, given the urgent timescales necessary for addressing the challenges of climate change and neoliberalism?

• Move away from neoliberalism, decrease the power of financial institutions, enable worker-owned enterprises
• At the same time, reinforce and strengthen democratic rights and citizen involvement in decision-making
• We need to ask the question of whether the post-pandemic will be "an extension of the neoliberal disaster, even harsher, with more surveillance, more control" or a new, better world wherein we deal with the climate and other crises we face, moving beyond present-day possibilities.

 
Professor Chomsky advised the audience that they are "absolutely not powerless. We have plenty of power.” People don't have to succumb to the ideological control of the powerful, but we have to grasp this power to be able to use it.

To hear the rest of Professor Chomsky's powerful talk, head to our YouTube channel here. 

Event summary by Larissa Nzikeu

​This week’s event focused on India’s energy transition, with esteemed guest speakers Amitabh Kant and Professor Navroz. K Dubash leading the conversation. Mr Kant is CEO of the National Institute for Transforming India, whilst Professor Dubash is a leading figure at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. 

Mr Kant began the conversation brimming with positivity and optimism at India’s progress in achieving its sustainability goals. Indeed, he pointed out that India is one of the few G20 countries on track to meet its Paris Agreements climate ambitions—such as achieving 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022. Mr Kant detailed the many achievements made throughout the course of India’s energy transition, highlighting, for example, that innovative and cutting-edge technology such as battery storage, ethanol blending, and solar pumps have already been implemented to promote energy efficiency schemes that facilitate India’s decarbonisation agenda.

Much progress has also been made at the fiscal and policy level to aid India's energy transition to renewables. For example, Mr Kant outlined India’s successful implementation of energy efficiency policies that promote green business models. This includes the aspirational goal of launching a mission to produce hydrogen fuel from green power sources. Also, a future 60-billion-dollar investment is set to be made to help the country transition to a gas-based economy, wherein such infrastructure as re-gasification terminals become the norm.

However, India’s energy transition is not perfect. Mr Kant discussed the challenges ahead, for example, in replacing the monopoly of state-run carbon-intensive power generation a more efficient and competitive distribution system which provides choice to consumers to opt for green services. Elaborating upon such challenges, Professor Dubash added that India’s energy transition is a rather complex and ‘multi-stranded process’. For instance, he argued that opting for sustainable models of development may cause a rise in carbon emissions in India - due in part to rising energy demands.

Professor Dubash noted that a just transition was critical, to minimise the social disruption caused by the shift from coal power shares of energy generation to renewables. In particular, he argued that substitutes will be needed to replace large revenues traditionally gained from fossil fuels in order to maintain India’s financial health. Likewise, the switch to renewables is likely to impact millions of Indian livelihoods heavily dependent on coal industries. Importantly, Professor Dubash stressed that social inequalities will be greatly exacerbated should the cross-subsidy system of the electricity sector be lost during the transition to solar power.
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All is not doom and gloom. Both Professor Dubash and Mr Kant agreed that there is still much cause for optimism for India’s energy transition: it has great renewable energy capacity. However, the socio-economic strategies put in place to aid this transition must be kept under a watchful eye.

By Alli Devlin