Why the market will never solve the Climate Crisis
What if our
understanding of capitalism and climate is back to front? What if the
problem is not that transitioning to renewables is too expensive, but
that saving the planet is not sufficiently profitable?
This is Brett
Christophers' claim. The global economy is moving too slowly toward
sustainability because the return on green investment is too low.
Today's consensus is
that the key to curbing climate change is to produce green
electricity and electrify everything possible. The main economic
barrier in that project has seemingly been removed. But while prices
of solar and wind power have tumbled, the golden era of renewables
has yet to materialize.
The problem is that
investment is driven by profit, not price, and operating solar and
wind farms remains a marginal business, dependent everywhere on the
state's financial support.
We cannot expect
markets and the private sector to solve the climate crisis while the
profits that are their lifeblood remain unappetizing. But there is an
alternative to providing surrogate green profits through subsidies:
to take energy out of the private sector's hands.
An essential
intervention, The Price Is Wrong is as politically
far-reaching as it is factually illuminating.