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Neoliberal Energy Policy and the Limits to 'Green Growth'  

Choi, Byung-Doo (Department of Geography Education, Daegu University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Geographical Society / v.45, no.1, 2010 , pp. 26-48 More about this Journal
Abstract
The current government tries to pursue a series of energy plans and strategies which have been recently established under the banner of 'green growth'. Although there have been several critical comments on the energy policy, the structural background under which the energy policy has been established and implemented has not yet been scrutinized. This paper understands the current government's strategy for 'green growth' and energy policy as a process of neoliberalization. In particular, the energy policy is characterized as industrialization, marketization, technologization, and financialization of energy, which bring about a lot of detailed issues. This kind of 'green growth' strategy is far from the model of sustainable development, and rather seems to be well interpreted in terms of what Harvey calls 'accumulation by dispossession'. As the government's strategy for 'green growth' and energy policy denies the roll of citizens and civil society which would mediate and arbitrate the contradiction between environment preservation and economic growth, and conflicts between market mechanism and state intervention, so alternatives to the 'green growth' strategy should be orientated to a citizen-participating and civil society-led energy policy.
Keywords
Energy policy; 'green growth'; neoliberalization; sustainable development; accumulation by dispossession;
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