Given the impasse in climate politics, maybe it is time to reframe the problem and start again. One way of doing this is to focus on how global warming is tied into our habitual abuse of water. In fact, it can be argued that climate change will never be rolled back unless the crucial link between local and global water cycles is restored.
With the world economic system close to collapse, 'environmentalism' is being coopted for a new wave of capital accumulation - a hegemony based on the financialisation of nature. At the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992 the transnational ruling class, steered by the Business Council for Sustainable Development, was already looking into this. More recently, the UN Environment Program's (UNEP) Green New Deal has paved the way to global commodification of 'ecosystem services'. The International…
Who benefited from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) held in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2010? Answer: COP16 closed by advancing the economics, politics and culture of competitive neoliberalism, reinforcing the interests of the transnational ruling class.
In response to global climate crisis and the breakdown of international financial institutions, green new deals are being discussed in local, national, regional and international settings. But the word 'deal' gives the lie to new, for these are mostly trade-off packages designed to hold together the narrow political arena of business-as-usual. The Transatlantic Green New Deal, the Global Green New Deal, as well as British and Australian versions, look rather like a revved-up Hobbesian social…
