Progressive Politics

It may seem implausible to argue that liberals who are working hard to enable capital investments in clean energy could be the allies of the petroauthoritarian right. But they are exactly that if they support expanding fossil fuels—or even if they advocate for an “all of the above” energy approach, which means expanding both clean energy and fossil fuels like “natural gas” (which, let’s be real, should accurately be called “methane gas”). We could blanket the entire planet in solar panels, and power every last data center with nuclear power, but if we continued to use coal, oil, and gas, the temperature would continue to climb with no end in sight. Dismissing that physics as irrelevant, even if you purport to agree that “climate change is real,” is obviously a form of disavowal that borders on denial.

What allies the authoritarian right and the center-left is their commitment to protecting capital above all. Decarbonizing will likely create millions of new jobs in the U.S. and establish new industries and services worldwide. Economic studies show that phasing out fossil fuels and creating a net-zero economy inside ecological boundaries will lead to better economic outcomes than doing nothing. Climate impacts are already contributing to inflation, costing U.S. households between $400 and $900 per year, on average. And continued climate change will likely curtail economic growth. By one estimate it could make growth roughly 23 percent smaller than it would have been otherwise; by another it could worst-case contract the global economy 50 percent over the next 40-50 years. And these economic effects are already starting to occur. The costs of this summer’s heat waves and fires in Europe are projected actually to zero out the continent’s entire projected growth for 2026. But none of that poses much of a current financial threat to members of the global capital faction, which is to say ruling-class asset holders and rentiers, who can afford the current costs of climate change while watching their stock portfolios grow to record highs from the AI boom / bubble. However, asset holders and rentiers do face an economic threat from the phaseout of fossil fuels, and for the fossil fuel industry itself, that threat is existential.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20261014132200/https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/liberals-cant-address-the-climate-crisis-because-it-means-confronting-capitalism

Additional reading, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/liberalism-and-climate-change (arc)

Liberalism, a political philosophy that emerged during the Enlightenment, emphasizes individual rights, reason, and the importance of civil society. It promotes the idea that individuals should have autonomy and be free from coercion, with a significant focus on private property as a means to self-preservation and social progress. This framework influences contemporary debates on climate change, as liberal perspectives vary widely.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-constitutionalism/article/climate-change-and-the-challenge-to-liberalism/C32914822B2B7326ACCFEE4B0C5AA519 (arc)

Particularly in light of their global reach, their specific behavioural implications and interpretations and the related obligations to act remain debatable and the overwhelming institutionalization of the neoliberal market economy makes clear and effective responses to climate change virtually impossible within liberal societies.