The political economy of climate change: the impasse and way out

Abstract

Mainstream economics attributes climate change to negative externalities of carbon emissions and the lack of climate property rights. Although market-based strategies such as emission trading are widely implemented under the guideline of mainstream economics, there is no evidence that the accelerating trend of global warming has been contained. Marxian economists criticise the theoretical point of departure of the mainstream perspective about climate change and climate governance, and propose an alternative analytical framework focussing on the relationship between climate and capital accumulation. Following the Marxian perspective, we discuss the subject, nature, strategy, and possibility of a popular climate movement that could serve as an alternative to the existing mainstream climate governance.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• climate governance
• Marxian economics
• popular movement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Heterodox economics refers to a wide range of economic theories including but not limited to Marxian, (post-) Keynesian, institutional, evolutionary, ecological, and feminist economics. In general, heterodox economics holds a critical point of view on the mainstream (neoclassical) economics. In the next section, we review the critique of the mainstream climate change theory and climate governance from the heterodox perspective in a broader sense. But in the following sections we mainly discuss the Marxian perspective on climate change.

Additional information

Funding

This research is sponsored by a Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 19ZDA057].