Revisiting the Global Climate Agenda: time for a U-turn?

Abstract

International agreements negotiated under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have not changed greenhouse gas emission trends. From a critical ecological economics perspective, this article pursues to further stimulate the debate on whether the current Global Climate Agenda (GCA) is being effective or, in contrast, needs a U-turn, as suggested by researchers on climate policy and governance who critically point to a GCA fueling capitalism as the cause behind its failure. In other words, these authors argue that the rules driving the world capitalist economy are also shaping the GCA. Such rules build on the growth imperative benefitting an elite minority while entailing an ever-expanding socioeconomic metabolism being responsible for the planetary socioecological crisis. The paper underlines the occurrence of a shift in the guiding principles of climate politics from the 1980s onwards when economic growth became an unquestionable global political objective at the international governance level. In a context of climate emergency where evidence shows a positive correlation between global GDP and emissions, critically analyzing the GCA due to its promotion of a growth-oriented green economy under the umbrella of sustainable development (SD) becomes an unavoidable task.