Capitalism & Climate Change

There is today growing consensus that the climate crisis is also a crisis of capitalism. Regardless of one’s political persuasion, it is incontrovertible that capitalism’s MO (of converting “natural resources into fungible commodities and monetary wealth”[1]) has been a primary driver of ecological change over the last 200 years. Jason Moore, an environmental historian at Binghampton University, has gone as far as to call our current epoch the Capitalocene, preferring this to the more common Anthropocene, which fails to capture how the costs and benefits of “the Age of Man” have been distributed unequally.[2] It is not humans, in general, who are to blame for this crisis, but rather, and more specifically, capitalist systems. (Indeed, as the 2017 Carbon Majors Report revealed, just 100 companies were responsible for 71 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.[3])

“Capitalism has produced a plethora of socioeconomic benefits”, writes Jonathan Park, of the University of Utah, “[but] it has generated a correspondingly monstrous amount of waste…, atmospheric pollution and other forms of environmental degradation”, of which global climate change has been the most severe consequence.[4]

All this begs the question: can capitalism and climate consciousness co-exist? Or does ending the climate crisis necessarily entail ending capitalism?

Position 1: Capitalism must fix this (aka “Capitalism got us into this mess…”)

If capitalism has caused climate change, could it also solve it? Humans, it is reasoned, are endlessly creative, and capitalism is a seedbed for innovation. Eventually, then, we will “crack” climate change, just as we’ve cracked other environmental challenges. This view is exemplified by the MIT scientist Andrew McAfee, who predicts that “the two forces of capitalism and technological progress will continue their [extraordinary] track record of providing for our wants and needs”. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, McAfee frames this as “the fuel of interest” meeting “the fire of genius”,[5] echoing what the economist Joseph Schumpeter referred to as “the gale of creative destruction”. As Jonathan Park notes, this is inherent to the logic of capitalism: “when a commercially viable resource is exhausted, the market will produce an alternative. Thus, capitalism is a supposedly indefatigable method for perpetually generating more wealth and greater social prosperity.”[6]

Position 2: Capitalism must die (aka “System change not climate change”)

But here’s the catch. Capitalism may promote innovation, yet it does so in the name of growth, not of sustainability. Thus, “while capitalist economies are able to spin off improved renewable-energy systems or energy-efficient technologies,” as the author Stan Cox writes, “they’re even better at producing new energy-consuming technologies and products”.[7] Again, this is central to the logic of capitalism: extraction, production, consumption, repeat. And since this process is driven by (short-term) economic goals rather than (long-term) ecological ones, it cannot be part of the solution.

Capitalism, it has been argued, has a parasitoid relationship to the Earth:[8] it will feed off its host until the latter ultimately expires. For this reason, the fight against climate change is seen by many as a fight against capitalism itself – “the capitalist system as it currently stands is neither designed for nor capable of consciously inhibiting its own propensity for unsustainable growth”.[9] Instead, as the Guardian journalist Phil McDuff puts it, “[w]e need to fundamentally re-evaluate our relationship to ownership, work and capital”.[10]

Position 3: Capitalism must change (aka “The baby, not the bathwater”)

Clearly, unfettered capitalism has been bad news for the environment. But what if we could harness capitalism, tame it, and put it to work for the climate, rather than against it? This is not simply a matter of investing in green technology; instead, it’s about restructuring the economy, and redefining growth. There are growing calls for “a greening of capitalism through large scale [sic] environmental and socialist reforms”.[11] This so-called Green New Deal allies efforts to address climate change with other social aims, such as job creation and reducing economic inequality.[12] Such structural change, critics argue, must go hand-and-hand with a wholesale recalibration of economic performance measures. Many businesses are already incorporating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors in their annual reports. However, this shift must be mirrored by governments, for whom GDP remains the predominant indicator of economic performance. And since GDP is a purely monetary measure, not a social or ecological one, it fails to capture the costs of development – to people and the planet.[13] 

What are the alternatives? One option is the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a means of measuring economic growth that takes into account both social and environmental factors.[14] Actions that boost GPI include generating more power from renewables, preserving natural habitats and increasing energy efficiency. By pursuing such aims, governments can harness capitalism for holistic ends, rather than solely economic ones.

So, is capitalism, in one shape or another, the solution to the climate crisis? Or does its underlying logic of exploitation, consumption and growth render it fundamentally incompatible with environmental goals?

There is no one answer here; no single truth. “Capitalism”, said Marx, “is the religion of everyday life”.[15] And this is a matter of faith. Readers must decide for themselves where salvation lies.

What cannot be denied, however, is that capitalism has long been complicit in the destruction of the natural world. It is incumbent on capitalism to rectify this, or face extinction of its own.

[1] Park, J. T. 2015. Climate change and capitalism. Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 14(2): 189-206.

[2] https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcde-2020-0003/html

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150.2016.1235036

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change

[4] Park, J. T. 2015. Climate change and capitalism. Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 14(2): 189-206.

[5] https://www.wired.com/story/technology-will-keep-us-from-running-out-of-stuff/

[6] Park, J. T. 2015. Climate change and capitalism. Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 14(2): 189-206.

[7] https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2018/09/01/heres-why-capitalism-cant-fix-climate-change

[8] See e.g. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/fight-against-climate-change-fight-against-capitalism/

[9] Park, J. T. 2015. Climate change and capitalism. Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 14(2): 189-206.

[10] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/18/ending-climate-change-end-capitalism

[11] https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/capitalism-and-the-green-agenda-a-green-new-deal-or-green-neo-colonialism

[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal

[13] https://earth.org/change-capitalism-for-climate-action/

[14] The system is already in use in 20 US states, with more set to follow.

[15] Marx, Karl. 1894 [1998]. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. III. In Marx and Engels Collected Works, Vol. 37. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

Climate Equality

Climate change, it is often said, is a global problem – a crisis for the whole of humanity. Earth is the proverbial Titanic, and it’s hit the climate iceberg.

“We may all be on the Titanic”, says the justice campaigner Asad Rehman, “but it’s the rich, white industrialised countries who are on the top deck, sipping their cocktails, listening to the orchestra and waiting for some technological fix to save them, whilst in the hold of the Titanic are black, brown, indigenous people, poor brown and black people from the Global South, who are already drowning, and when they try and flee, they find that the escape hatch is bolted.”[1]

Rehman is not alone in this assessment. “Climate change is a civil rights issue”, writes the Reverend Gerald Durley,[2] who once marched with Martin Luther King. Others are more blunt: Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert of Black Lives Matter calls climate change “a racist crisis”.[3] It is, moreover, “sexist”,[4] affecting women and girls disproportionately in all regions of the world, as the UN explicitly acknowledges.[5]

The fight against climate change is therefore a fight against inequality, wherever and whenever it occurs. Organisations are a key battlefront.

The business case for equality is well-established.[6] Substantial research has demonstrated how Equality, Diversity and Inclusion[7] (EDI) initiatives enhance organisational performance in myriad ways. Equality, for instance, ensures a positive working environment, which in turn increases employees’ motivation, engagement and productivity. Diversity, meanwhile, invites a broad spectrum of thought styles, attitudes and approaches, which bolsters creativity, adaptability and effectiveness. Furthermore, diverse organisations are more reflective of society at large, which makes them more responsive to the needs of their patrons.

Just as there is a business case for EDI, there is also an environmental one. As noted by Professor Katherine Hayhoe, chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, “the greater the diversity of voices that you have at the table – in terms of life experience, culture, knowledge, expertise, gender, race and other things – the bigger the range of possible solutions you’re able to come up with”.[8] And since climate change is the defining issue of our times, the more solutions we come up with, the better.

There is ample empirical evidence for this claim. Oil companies with higher female representation at board level are more likely to have set decarbonisation strategies.[9] Companies that employ more women show a higher concern for climate change.[10] Hispanic/Latino (37%) and Black Americans (36%) are more likely to campaign against global warming than White Americans (22%).[11] People with disabilities are adept at “anticipating, assessing and improvising in the face of risk”,[12] which should be “central to climate change adaptation planning”.[13] The list goes on.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are important not only because they yield better solutions to environmental problems. As mentioned previously, marginalised groups are disproportionately affected by climate change.[14] The statistics are sobering:

• Developing countries suffer 99 per cent of the casualties attributable to climate change; the 50 least developed countries contribute just 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.[15] [16]

• People in low-and lower-middle-income countries are around five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden extreme weather disasters.[17]

• Almost 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women.[18]

• Hispanic and Black Americans are exposed to around 60 per cent more air pollution than they make; White Americans are exposed to 17 per cent less.[19]

• Only 21 per cent of people with disabilities believe they could evacuate without difficulty following a climate emergency.[20]

• Between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause an estimated 250,000 additional deaths per year, primarily in developing countries.[21]

• Nearly three quarters of the world’s poor depend directly on natural resources for their livelihoods. Seventy per cent are women.[22] [23] [24]

What is worse, climate change has been shown to heighten economic inequality[25] and increase vulnerability – it is, as the UN puts it, “a vicious cycle”.[26] It stands to reason, then, that marginalised groups should be front and centre in the fight against climate change. In the words of Dr Robert Bullard, the “father of environmental justice”, “those most impacted by climate change must be in the room and at the table when plans, decisions and solutions are being developed”.[27] 

There is an obvious rejoinder here. If those most impacted by climate change are poor, marginalised groups in the Global South, how can EDI efforts in the industrialised world hope to make a difference? In other words, how does increasing diversity in, say, large European corporations impact vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa, or South Asia?

The answer is deceptively simple: we are dealing here with systemic issues, and all systems of oppression are interlinked. Murray Bookchin, the founder of social ecology, famously argued that the destruction of the natural world is rooted in the domination of humans by humans. Thus, so long as inequality exists, there will be environmental crises; how could it be otherwise, when environmental risks and rewards are not shared equally? (It is no coincidence that “human equality” is a fundamental principle of most environmental movements.[28])

In this light, every effort to reduce inequality can be seen as a step to protecting the planet. Climate change, we are slowly realising, is not about “weather”. Instead, “[i]t is a civilisational wake-up call”, writes the author and activist Naomi Klein, “[a] powerful message – spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions – telling us that we need a new way of sharing this planet”.[29]

We must share the planet equally.

[1] https://worldat1c.org/negotiating-who-lives-and-dies-5d400021b860

[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-change-civil-rights_b_3844986

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/06/climate-change-racist-crisis-london-city-airport-black-lives-matter

[4] https://gca.org/climate-change-is-sexist-but-climate-adaptation-doesnt-have-to-be/

[5] https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/womenin-shadow-climate-change

[6] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-business-case-for-equality-and-diversity-a-survey-of-the-academic-literature

[7] The terms “equality”, “diversity” and “inclusion” are often used interchangeably, yet their meanings are in fact subtly different. Equality is about granting people equal opportunities, regardless of their race, age, gender or other characteristics.[7] Diversity is about being aware of these differences and celebrating them. And inclusion is about making sure that everyone feels welcome and accepted.

[8] https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/women-climate-crisis-talks-un-b1813132.html

[9] https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/international-womens-day-climate-change-gender-diversity-b1813574.html

[10] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/csr.279

[11] https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/race-and-climate-change/

[12] Abbott, D., & Porter, S. 2013. Environmental hazard and disabled people: From vulnerable expert to interconnected. Disability & Society 28(6): 839–852.

[13] Görgens, T. & Ziervogel, G. 2019. From “No One Left behind” to Putting the Last First: Centring the voices of disabled people in resilience work. In Watermeyer, B. (Ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

[14] https://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2017/wp152_2017.pdf

[15] Global Humanitarian Forum, 2009, 'Human Impact Report: Climate Change - The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis', Global Humanitarian Forum, Geneva. Available at https://gsdrc.org/document-library/human-impact-report-climate-change-the-anatomy-of-a-silent-crisis/

[16] http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/268/hdr_20072008_en_complete.pdf

[17] https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/www/static/media/files/physical-risks-from-climate-change.pdf

[18] Aguilar, L. 2004. Climate change and disaster mitigation. Gender makes the difference. Gland: IUCN; https://www1.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Climate%20and%20Disaster%20Resilience/Climate%20Change-final-for%20WEB.pdf

[19] https://apnews.com/article/f6bf2f47c81c4958811dc4e99d526197

[20] https://www.unisdr.org/2014/iddr/documents/2013DisabilitySurveryReport_030714.pdf

[21] https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/hae---regional-forum-(2016)/climatechange-factsheet-rfhe.pdf?sfvrsn=75d570fd_2

[22] https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/womenin-shadow-climate-change

[23] https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/no-70-world-s-poor-aren-t-women-doesn-t-mean-poverty-isn-t-sexist

[24] https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/kc/WAVES-nca-poverty-5.pdf

[25] https://www.pnas.org/content/116/20/9808

[26] https://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2017/wp152_2017.pdf

[27] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/black-climate-change-leaders-we-have-to-be-active.html

[28] See e.g. https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-truth/about-us/ (Point 6); https://wwf.panda.org/discover/people_and_conservation/our_principles/ (Point 5); https://www.edf.org/diversity

[29] Klein, N. 2015. This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate. New York: Simon & Schuster.