Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of Energy Transitions
| Author | Joshua K. McEvoy |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020221097998 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
the Indian thinker Benoy Kumar Sarkar invoked a 1,500-year-old text, the Arthashastra
(or “science of wealth”) to advocate for policies designed to industrialize the sub-
continent. In Latin America, Mexican foreign minister Jos´
e Manuel Puig Casauranc’s
push to combine protective tariffs with international cash contributions to developing
nations eventually helped shape the post–World War II Bretton Woods system.
A grand work of scholarship, the book easily accomplishes its goal of disrupting
Western and List-centric readings of neomercantilism. While the final two sections do
leave the reader wanting more, whether there is more to be had is a real question.
Perhaps this can serve as a starting point for other scholars to fill out the story. Similarly
unfair, given the scope of the book, is the desire to see an expanded version of the final
chapter on neomercantilism’s post–World War II legacies.
Combining a close reading of neomercantilist texts with insights drawn from
relevant primary and secondary sources, The Neomercantilists should prove a valuable
resource for scholars interested in post-Napoleonic global governance and the world
economy. It will also interest those studying the history of ideas and their global
circulation. However, any reader will find within a valuable reminder of the barren
nature of contemporary debates about the world economy and, perhaps, some in-
spiration to transform them going forward.
Peter Newell
Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of Energy Transitions
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 283 pp. $51.95 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-108-96582-8
Reviewed by: Joshua K. McEvoy (joshua.mcevoy@queensu.ca), Queen’s University
The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on the
impacts of globalwarming stated that carbon emissions needto be reduced by 45 percent
relative to 2010levels within twelve years,and to “net-zero”by mid-century,to have any
chance at limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
1
The report inv oked a
sense of urgency in its call for “rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy”and other
sectors to ensure “no or limited overshoot”of the Paris Agreement targets.
In the timely and welcome Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of Energy
Tran si tio ns, Peter Newell takes the urgency of environmental despoliation seriously. In
response,Newell sets out to understand (a) howa rapid energy transition canbe achieved
and (b) the tensions such an endeavour produces vis-`
a-vis issues of equity, democracy,
and social justice. Uniting a concern for what is to be done with how to do it fairly,
1. IPCC, “Summary for Policymakers,”in Global Warming of 1.50C: An IPCC Special Report on the
Impacts of Global Warming 1.5°C above Pre-industrial levels and Related Global Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Pathways, 2018.
Book Reviews 153
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