Electrifying the Future: Balancing Economic Growth and Climate Change in the Global South

Bradlow’s research on transitioning to electric vehicle manufacturing in countries in the Global South that traditionally produced combustion engine vehicles is part of a broader intellectual agenda. The study explores the removal of intellectual property rights for vaccines to demonstrate potential opportunities for transferring green technologies.

Bradlow and Kentikelenis’s fieldwork for this project has primarily taken place in Brazil and South Africa, both of which are leaders in manufacturing internal combustion engine cars and have substantial export industries. Electric vehicles are a key example of the green technologies targeted by current industrial policies in the Global North, such as tariffs and laws like the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act.

Middle-income countries in the Global South are apprehensive about accessing new global supply chains for green technologies due to concerns that the shift to electric vehicles poses a significant challenge to their vital manufacturing sector. Bradlow highlights this dilemma as one of the most crucial and complex aspects of technological change that is influencing the global sociology of climate change.