Hydrocarbon civilisation and the economics of global climate change

This thesis is about the 'business as usual' scenario of greenhouse gas emissions growth and the built-in inefficiencies of the responses to it. The discipline of International Relations is familiar with the main environmental consequence of those inefficiencies; namely, greenhouse gas emissions that continue to rise beyond well-established target levels. However, the underlying historical causes of the 'business as usual' trend have received less consideration. It will be argued in this thesis that the character of these inefficiencies is essentially economic in nature and correspond to historically specific processes that have been driven by high levels of oil, gas and coal consumption. Energy use has proven so indispensable for the functioning of modern industrial civilisation that it is possible to conceive of ours as a Hydrocarbon Civilisation: a socio-technical system composed of different material and social institutions that share a basis in energy use practices.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo