It's the official publication day for ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS. Want to know why the US turns 40 percent of the corn crop into fuel? How the US and Brazil became the world's two largest ethanol producers? Tom Rogers and I have answers.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...

Here’s me nerding out on the hybrid assembly line at the Toyota factory in Ethekwini.

At the Beijing Automotive Industrial Corporation factory complex in Gqeberha, South Africa.

At the NAAMSA South Africa Auto Week convention this morning, metalworkers’ union general secretary Irvin Jim makes a blistering attack on Chinese brands of imported vehicles.

"An automotive sector that directly employs about 115,000 people in South Africa and has become the centrepiece of the country’s post-apartheid industrial revival."

on.ft.com/4mQSAMZ

Excited for our new edited (and OPEN ACCESS) book released on Nov 20th

"The Material Geographies of the Belt and Road Initiative: Infrastructures and Political Ecologies on the New Silk Road"

with Elia Apostolopoulou, Han Cheng and Alan Wiig

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-material...

Awesome, congrats!

Arriving on Sunday in Joburg, and will be in Gqeberha for SA Auto Week, Oct 1-3. Looking forward to being back in South Africa for more research on the EV transition in the Global South!

Growing community on green industrial policy pushing the research frontier @hochstet.bsky.social @bentleyallan.bsky.social @jonasnahm.com @joannalewis.bsky.social @michaeldavidson.bsky.social @bhbradlow.bsky.social @danielaldana.bsky.social

The geoeconomic turn is here to stay.
How we design green industrial policy will decide whether it drives or derails global decarbonization.

Read the full article here 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

EVs & batteries = biggest focus

"The group expects annual sales of about 30,000 electric trucks for 2025, mostly in China. It has opened an electric truck factory in South Africa this year, is scouting for land in Brazil for a second overseas operation and has begun selling its vehicles in Europe."

on.ft.com/46n0fh1

When I say the US has bet its post-pandemic economy on AI while China has bet its on green energy, this is what I mean: Here, AI related companies account for 75% of S&P 500 returns since ChatGPT's launch. In China, green tech accounts for one quarter of GDP growth.

As with a lot of this administration's economic experiments, there's a kernel of sense in the institutional ambition, but not in the capricious and often captured modes towards which that ambition is directed.

If so, don't the most recent data suggest the peak may have been reached last year?

For example, China's growth model led it to peak emissions in 2024, six years before it previously said it would do so (2030).

It does not make sense to focus so much attention on emissions pledges when it's the growth model that actually makes the change.

This is going to be criticized as a significantly less ambitious commitment than the Paris framework would require.

All well and good.

But the emissions framework can obscure the mechanisms behind emissions reductions.

China is hitching its entire growth model to electrification technologies.

Really enjoyed this one, Rob!

Today is publication day!

EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism is officially out with @wwnorton.com - find it at a bookstore near you or order online💚📚 wwnorton.com/books/978132...

Huge congrats! Got a message today that my copy is on the way.

Interesting set of figures in the thread below on the limits to adopting green industrial policies across the globe.

This figure in particular caught my eye.

By far, the auto sector is the target for green industrial policies that appears most accessible for middle income countries.

Brazil’s association of auto manufacturers, ANFAVEA, is aiming for a “ceasefire” with Chinese firms like BYD and Great Wall Motors that have begun making EVs in the country, after having previously lobbied for increased tariffs and other import restrictions.

www1.folha.uol.com.br/colunas/pain...