8 - Political Economy for Alligators

Summary

To understand why so little is being done about climate change, we need to draw on political economy: Who would pay the cost of adhering to a carbon budget, and what say do they have over policy? The cost of capital write-offs discussed in Chapter 5 will be borne primarily by wealth-holders, who have disproportionate political influence in nearly all countries. Although public attention has focused on fossil fuel industries, a wide range of businesses have quietly resisted emission-cutting regulations and ensured that adopted policies would have ample loopholes. The other main cost, much higher energy prices, would be borne regressively by households. To forestall their opposition and protect living standards, it is essential that most carbon revenues be returned to them, ideally as per-capita rebates. The net effect of carbon pricing and rebating would be strongly progressive. Since it is neither feasible nor desirable to compensate wealth-holders for capital losses, however, effective action against catastrophic climate change requires broad, determined collective action to rebalance political power away from control by capital.