Climate capitalism won’t save us

Authoritarian populists from Trump to Modi are gaining ground globally, often with a fervent embrace of fossil fuels and anti-environmental rhetoric. 

There is a clear ideological component to this insipid ‘fossil fascism’. This is built on a right wing fear that the ‘woke net zero agenda’ is to blame for high energy prices and global economic stagnation. 

The green ‘transition’ economy is pitted against this emerging fossil fascism, with politicians and corporations confidently declaring green technologies and artificial intelligence will provide jobs and spur growth. 

Fortunes

Yet these politicians and corporations also weaken their policies and environmental commitments, seemingly taking fright at a backlash against all things green.

To assume ‘green capitalism’ is more progressive than its fossil opposition would be a critical mistake. Both share crucial features and a common political trajectory away from liberal democracy towards a distinctly less democratic, much hotter future.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive,” Donald Trump, write on Twitter (now X) back in 2012.

Both climate policies and the backlash against them are built on the need to overcome the tendencies towards stagnation within the global economy. 

While Trump & Co see cheap fossil fuels and manufacturing as central to the revival of national economic fortunes, for over a decade now green industries have been one of the few sectors to post significant growth rates and attract investment.

Tech-driven

Green capitalism promotes the idea that economic growth can be “decoupled” from environmental harm, making it a ‘win-win’ for the economy and the environment. AI is increasingly being sold as a core component of this decoupling, accelerating efficiencies and turning our ‘dumb’ fossil economy into a smart, green one.

But. The idea that environmental impacts and economic growth can be decoupled has been convincingly debunked. Evidence shows that absolute decoupling at a global scale remains highly unlikely and that many so-called green innovations rely on extractive supply chains and high energy use.