Climate Change or System Change?

December 14, 2015

Climate Change or System Change?” argues that globalization – that is, the deregulation of trade and finance through an ongoing series of ‘free trade’ treaties – is the driving force behind climate change. The climate problem can only be tackled effectively if governments stop subsidizing globalization, and begin pursuing a localization agenda instead. “If we are going to limit warming to the 2-degree Celsius benchmark,” the paper notes, “there will need to be a fundamental shift in the economy: away from growth-at-any-cost globalization towards more diversified, localized economies that serve the real needs of people and the planet.” The most effective steps to reduce CO2 emissions were not discussed in Paris. Civil society must lead the debate and pressure governments to change the system behind climate change.

 
Published December 2015.
 

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