Introduction

In recent years, capitalism has been one of the main political forces obstructing the implementation of solutions to climate change. As such it is important to analyze the mechanisms by which capitalism causes these issues, and suggest solutions, both political and technological, to the problems that capitalism causes.

Methodology

Capitalism’s contribution to climate is rooted in both science and politics; thus, literature from both fields were examined to determine an optimal solution to this issue.

Results

Capitalism is an economic system in which businesses are controlled by private owners with the intent of making profit. Despite being an integral part of modern civilization, capitalism has been highlighted as one of the major contributors to climate change. This is evidenced by the substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the onset of the Industrial Revolution (USEPA, 2016).

In addition to exacerbating the climate crisis, capitalist structures also prevent the institution of climate change solutions. Capitalism promotes unsustainable activity on various scales, from the individual to national level, exemplified via the world systems theory and the actions of corporations and individuals (Kostoska et al., 2020). Capitalism is also short-sighted and unfit to deal with long-term crises, which contributes to inaction (King, 2021).

Figure 1: Different production pathways for liquid and gaseous fuels compared between conventional fossil fuels and alternative biomass technologies (Creutzig et al., 2015). In this diagram, LPG= liquid petroleum gases, CNG= compressed natural gases, LNG= liquefied natural gas, FTL= Fischer-Tropsch liquids, and DME= dimethyl ether, which are all liquid and gaseous fuel options included amongst all options (Creutzig et al., 2015).

Climate change mitigation technology has the potential to assist greatly with the climate crisis. Carbon capture and bioenergy, among other technologies (as seen in Figure 1) have the greatest potential for minimizing emissions (Berndes, Bird and Cowie, 2011; Creutzig et al., 2015). Technological solutions do have unique barriers imposed in regulations and appropriate implementation, especially since technological agreements often span multiple governmental structures; however, economic and climatic goals can both be prioritized through technology deployment (Pachauri, Mayer and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015).

Discussion

The two main systematic alterations suggested to fix the current state of capitalism include the manipulation of internal mechanisms to motivate a more sustainable form of capitalism, or overturning capitalism entirely (Vlachou, 2004). The problem with relying on internal capitalistic mechanisms to motivate environmental action is that they cannot substantially oppose profit motivations, and they do not stop the incessant growth inherent to capitalism (Ward et al., 2016; Harvey, 2018). As such, systemic solutions to capitalism must seek to overturn it, not just regulate within it. One such solution is degrowth: the intentional reduction of economic production to a lower steady state to create a society which is sustainable in the long-term (Kallis, 2011).

Conclusion

The relationship between capitalism and the climate crisis exemplifies a conflict between global and economic priorities. The prioritization of profit under capitalist structures promotes practices that worsen the climate crisis while preventing solutions from being implemented. Due to capitalism’s entrenchment within society, there is a need for solutions that lie within the capitalist framework. Bioenergy and carbon capture technologies are examples of such solutions that can greatly improve the global climate prognosis, given appropriate institution. However, a truly effective solution to climate change, and future crises, requires a change in the realm of societal structure.

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