What if climate politics is about power, not carbon?

Alasdair speaks with Jessica F. Green, author of the new book Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, about why thirty years of climate policy have failed to reduce emissions. 

They discuss why carbon pricing has been largely ineffective, how net zero pledges are misleading, and why focus must shift from measuring emissions by the tonne to measuring profitability.  

Jessica is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and an expert in carbon pricing and global governance. Her new book addresses the climate crisis through asset revaluation and is available to preorder from Princeton University Press here.   

Further reading:  

• The Decarbonization Bargain: How the Decarbonizable Sector Shapes Climate Politics, Nils Kupzok and Jonas Nahm, Cambridge University Press, 2024 
• The False Promise of Carbon Offsets, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2023 
• Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy, Jonas Nahm, Oxford University Press, 2021 
• Follow the Money, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2021 
• Does carbon pricing reduce emissions? A review of ex-post analyses, Jessica F. Green, Environmental Research Letters, 2021 
• Making Climate Policy Work, Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor, Wiley, 2020 

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