Capitalism and Climate Change Theoretical Discussion, Historical Development and Policy Responses

About this book

Capitalism and Climate Change discusses climate change as a social issue by analysing its development in parallel with capitalism. By integrating political economy and environmental economics, it examines the incompatibility of the imperatives of capitalist development and the physical limits of the earth. The regulation approach is used to make an empirical analysis of the links between accumulation regimes, modes of consumption, energy regimes and climate change during the two most recent growth periods: Fordism and finance-driven capitalism.

Capitalism and Climate Change also assesses the potential of the global governance network for dealing with climate change. It provides a critique of free-market environmental economics and special emphasis is given to international inequalities. Capitalism and Climate Change concludes that real climate change mitigation is impossible within the framework of finance-driven capitalism. Far-reaching changes comparable to the postwar re-regulation of economy and society are required to avoid life threatening climate change.

Contents

- Dedication
- List of Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgement
- Introduction

PART I: CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT AND THE REGULATION OF SOCIETY AND NATURE
- Nature and the Work Process
- Capitalism, Nature and Climate Change: A Structural Analysis
- The Regulation of Nature and Society in Different Capitalist Growth Strategies

PART II: FORDISM
- The Origins of a New Accumulation Regime
- The Geographic Extension of Fordism
- Mode of Societalisation and Consumption Norm
- A Fossil Energy Regime

PART III: FINANCE-DRIVEN CAPITALISM
- The Rise of a Finance-Driven Accumulation Regime
- The Recomposition of the International Division of Labour
- A Worldwide Consumption Norm (Based on Debt) and the Financial Crisis
- The Globalisation of the Fossil Energy Regime

PART IV: THE INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE OR THE COMMODIFICATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE
- Multinational Governance in an Unequal World: The Kyoto Process and the Actors Involved
- Theory and Practice of Carbon Emission Trading: The Case of the EU ETS
- The Flaws of Free-Market Solutions for Climate Change Prevention and their Homology to a Finance-Driven Accumulation Regime
- Concluding Remarks
- Endnotes
- Index

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Biography

Max Kock Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Welfare, Lund University, Sweden. He has previously published Roads to Post-Fordism: Labour Markets and Social Structures in Europe and Diversity, Standardization and Social Transformation: Gender, Ethnicity and Inequality in Europe (co-edited with L. McMillan and B. Peper).