Capitalism Under Climate Change: Dynamics and Possibilities

We are entering the era of climate change, an era predicted to radically disrupt social relations on a world scale. For more than thirty years the world has sought to respond, with climate policy ostensibly directed at decarbonising global capitalism. What are the results, and what does this tell us about future trajectories: what is happening to capitalism under climate disruption? Do we see more of the same – fossil capitalism window-dressed with claims to ‘net zero’. Or is capitalism being climatised - with the invention of carbon commodities, the capture of renewable energy and the adoption of climate risk accounting? Or is there a transformation underway, beyond capitalism as-we-know-it, a move to socialised provision and sufficiency, delinked from fossil energy? There is wide variation in experiences, across modes of capitalism and radically different contexts, reflecting deepening unevenness and injustice in an increasingly climatised world. Where do the hopes for superseding fossil capitalism come from, and how can transformations be theorised under the deepening climate contradictions? This session seeks to open a wide-ranging discussion of these themes, and to share reflections informed by engaged research.