Energizing industrial development: the role of the state in 21st century greening strategies

Abstract

Industrial development, as it diffuses globally to encompass the great emerging 21st century powers China, India and Brazil, increasingly has to place energy issues at the core – to move off the fossil fuels that worked in the past but are creating impossible tensions now and to move towards a new green growth model that promises to reduce or eliminate those tensions as it expands. In this paper I review the issues involved in the new ‘green industrial strategy’ and discuss the institutional state strategies being deployed in China, India, Brazil and South Africa – the BICS countries – to drive the transition that is under way. The argument goes that in the 21st century the developmental state has perforce to be a practitioner of green industrial strategies. The Brazilian model with its threefold involvement of state institutions in developing rolling ten-year plans for renewable energy deployment, targeted investment with local content requirements through the national development bank and promotion of cost reductions through state-mediated reverse auctions, is discussed as a viable strategy.