Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change
Very well-written and represents a peek
into the strategy of some major power interests dedicated to rescuing our
little blue ball. It's also a bit of a user-friendly wake-up book, and I liked
it. “People raised on images of limitless possibilities, muscle cars, Western
superiority in world markets, and a rising standard of living watched in shock
as General Motors, the iconic American business, melted in bankruptcy in 2008.
For many the magnitude of that collapse has yet to sink in. Nor has the
recognition that Toyota became the world's largest car company-riding to prominence
on the success of fuel-efficient vehicles that seem an affront to everything
that made America great. GM's emergence from bankruptcy is similarly based on a
small electric hybrid.”
The book does amply demonstrates how intelligent use of
market mechanisms can solve the climate crisis not at a cost but as an
investment, delivering enhanced profitability and a stronger economy as well as
a better future for the planet. While “the best and fastest way to protect the
climate is to reduce the unnecessary use of fossil energy. It is also the
fastest way to an immediate return investment.Cutting waste saves money, whether you are
a business leader or a head of a household.”
Citing unemployment, (25 % in Detroit,) and
citing Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth as a must-read, the books describes climate
change as a “ a moral issue,” and asserts that solving climate change is “THE
WAY OUT of the economic crisis.” It also asserts that disasters are “not only a
humanitarian disaster but a business risk.” The author then outlines the inside
story of capitalism's response to climate change, in what turns out to be,
regardless of your degree of reverence for market forces, a very entertaining
series of case studies.
The book also introduces the not-a-commonly-use-household
word “The Investor Network on Climate Risk,” a consortium of sorts which
comprises over 80 institutional investors collectively managing more than 480
trillion in assets and launched in 2003. This group introduced a 10 point plan for leading
financial investors to address climate risk and seize investment opportunity.
But wait, before you think it's exclusively disaster capitalism, the key point
became disclosure, as well as laws requiring a company to disclose any
environmental liabilities that could affect an investor's “view” of an organization. Sounds so stuffy
and papery, but not really when we are talking about the influence of trillions
of dollars. Since 2002, the UK's Carbon Disclosure Project has surveyed the 500
biggest companies in the world. Instead of the CDP being an annoying gadfly,
the results were embraced by some pretty big players as extremely useful stuff.
By 2006, 60 percent of the companies surveyed had actively replied, realizing
the value in making public commitments to support limits on greenhouse gases,
other emissions and to disclose climate risk information to investors. The CPD
now represents over $64 Trillion in assets, almost a third of all global
institutional investor assets. Just to give you a sneak view into some of her generously
sprinkled case studies, the author describes the odyssey of Walmart, their
commitment of 417 million in new lighting systems. In 2005 Walmart pledged to
be supplied by 100 renewable energy, to create zero waste and to sell products
that sustain resources and the environment. Ambitious but doable, and it paid
off. In 2008, while the rest of the stock market was experiencing a crash,
Walmart's stocks rose. As well, Walmart called a meeting that year in China of
its 1000 largest suppliers, Chinese government representatives and the CDP
among other attendees with the intention of aggressively building a more
environmentally and socially responsible supply chain. Walmart began phasing in
the plan by 2009 and expanding to suppliers around the world by 2011. Companies
that met the criteria most stringently would be chosen as sources for products
and materials, the others Walmart rejected for the big blue trash bin of
corporate failure.
Another case example which I liked in the
book is in Florida, where the Florida Governor wanted to implement aggressive
efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, and was willing make great expenses
to do it. Instead Florida found doing so would add $28 billion by 2025 and is
enjoying the boom. Thanks to such examples, it is now well-established that
protecting the environment creates, rather than costs jobs. “The United States is losing global
leadership by lagging in the new green gold rush.”
There are other fascinating examples,
especially in her The World Without Oil chapter, and if you read it, you will
these include Richard Branson of Virgin Air's progress with biofuels and
airline emission reductions, which Monbriot sees an one of the most major
polluters left to tackle. There is also discussions of the use of algae to create
biofuel, and much more! Hunter Lovins in
her ever-present black cowboy hat is the President and Founder of Natural
Capital Solutions, Professor of Sustainable Management at BARD, and celebrated
co-creator of the “Natural Capitalism” concept, as well as being a sought
speaker and mentor named Millennium TIME Magazine Hero of the Planet. Her
co-author, Boyd Cohen, Ph.D., is a climate strategist focused on urban
environments, and a sustainable development leader.
A highly indexed book, extensively footnoted,
I quite enjoyed it. Recommended read.
Lovins, L. H., & Cohen, B. (2011). Climate capitalism: Capitalism in the age of climate change. Hill and Wang.
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