The leader
Because we’re worth it
Capitalism caused the climate crisis. Guided by the right values, it can help save us
ESTABLISHING a good degree of pandemic
resilience would have cost less than the
economic output lost in just a single
day of the covid-19 crisis. That missed
opportunity is one indictment of market
failings among many that former Bank
of Canada and Bank of England governor
Mark Carney advances in our interview
with him this week (see page 44).
Another, perhaps the most troubling,
is the inability of markets to value the
natural world. How is it that we can put a
value on Amazon, the company, yet only
ascribe value to the Amazon rainforest
by logging it and stripping it bare?
Carney’s critiques are worth listening
to. He has sat at the top table of global
capitalism for the past decade and a half.
We have become in thrall, he says, to a
dangerous market fundamentalism that
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fails to find value in things of real worth Carney is at the centre of efforts
to all of us, things that create long-term to remedy that in the run-up to the
prosperity: resilience, sustainability and crucial COP26 climate talks in the UK this
equality of opportunity among them. November. Central to it all is the thing that
Failure to invest in pandemic controls oils all efficient markets: information.
before covid-19 is one example of this Establishing reporting requirements,
“crisis of value”. The growing climate for example, that make it clear how firms’
and environmental crisis is another. investment strategies fit with net-zero
might not sound heroic, but it would allow
“We are in thrall to a dangerous everyone to make investment decisions
market fundamentalism that based on their own, and society’s, values.
fails to value the things we do” Carney found himself embroiled
in controversy last month over the
The technological solutions we need to definition of net-zero investments used
reach net-zero carbon emissions by mid- by the financial company he now works
century largely already exist. With a new for. However, that only underscores the
US administration in place, the political difficulty, and importance, of what is
momentum for change is gathering, too. needed: robust action to rework markets
Aligning market values with our values in to ensure they are transparently working
the climate fight is now the missing piece. for the benefit of us all. ❚
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