A Statement of Concern—Part 5: Keep the Climate, Change the Economy

To tackle climate change, the global outlook must change from “Gain maximisation for a few” to “Risk minimisation for all.” Capitalism will not do this as it supports profit maximisation for the fat cats. A sustainable society has to be equitable as well, and sustainability has to be global. Eco-anarchism (a mix of eco-socialism and anarchism) is the alternative that can make society sustainable and equitable, and one that has transparent, democratic grassroots governance. The transition to eco-anarchism will be very bumpy and uneven in time and space, the roadmap for which is still hazy. Unlike past thinking, a sustainable and equitable society can be ushered in by a rainbow coalition of working people—wage labour, farmers, indigenous people, women, youth,  gig workers, etc.

Global outlook change required

Capitalism failed to tackle climate change as it followed the line “Keep the economy, let the climate change” as it wished to allow the fat cats to continue making profits. Had it realised that the climate is more important than the economy, it would have followed a diametrically opposite line, i.e., “Keep the climate, change the economy.” But that would have meant forsaking profits, for which global outlooks need to change from “Gain maximisation for a few” to “Risk minimisation for all species.”

A sustainable society has to perforce be equitable also. If surplus (profits, capital) is usurped by a small elite, the rest will also aspire to emulate the elite, and the never-ending vicious cycle continues. Sustainability, therefore, has to be universal. A sustainable society in one village or one nation will find it difficult to survive. Capitalism is threatened by a sustainable nation, as the growth of its profits will be curtailed.  Sustainability has to be a global project.

What kind of society can deliver equity and sustainability? Hunting-gathering societies were, to a large extent, equitable and sustainable. Since then, no other form of society has been both equitable and sustainable. The Soviet Union and China, and other “socialist” countries, aspired to be equitable, but they did not aspire to be sustainable. Cuba was forced to make some moves to become a sustainable society in the last decade of the 20th Century due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of their cheap fossil fuel source.

Eco-socialism, which holds sustainability and equity to be equally important, and elements of anarchism that argue for self-governing small communities and a minimalist state, show promise in becoming societies that are sustainable and equitable. A combination of eco-socialism and anarchism may be termed eco-anarchism. In addition to ushering in equity, sustainability and community governance with a minimalist state, eco-anarchism has the potential to eliminate growth generated by capitalism and anthropocentrism. However, such a society is yet to take birth, so we do not know how it will function in practice.

Eco-anarchism requires four fundamental requisites:

Reducing global energy consumption

Moving into a global energy and emissions equality regime

Moving away from fossil fuels by 2050 and relying on solar, biomass, other renewable and animate energy

Shifting from non-renewable materials to renewable biotic resources

The transition from capitalism to eco-anarchism will be extremely uneven in time and space. Unless there is a civilizational collapse, social change will not happen at the same time or even in the same way all over the world. Capitalism is likely to react forcefully, and even violently, to change, as happened in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. However, the people’s movement for eco-anarchism must not use violence as a tool for change, as violence is antithetical to eco-anarchism.

A roadmap to eco-anarchism is difficult to chart out at this stage, as social change may happen in many ways–global economic collapse, people’s groundswell, slow but incremental change, changes in specific local areas without human society as a whole changing. This is surely a topic for debate for those who wish to see an equitable, sustainable and peaceful society.

Who will be the change agent?

The 20th Century saw four movements that attempted to correct certain inequalities. The anti-colonial movement won independence for Asian and African colonies. The civil rights movement succeeded in getting equal political and social rights for blacks in the USA and South Africa. The anti-capitalist movements attempted to alter the socio-economic system in certain countries to obtain economic equity. The gender equality movements fought for equality for women, and subsequently for LGBTQ individuals. All four movements asked for some form of equity—social, political and economic.

Every one of these movements was led by people who suffered under an oppressive system, and not by governments. In addition to fighting the inequitable distribution of resource use, the environmental movement has to tackle anthropocentrism, which none of the previous movements contended with. The environmental movement will be unorganised and chaotic, and uneven in time and space. Yet, it will bring about the most profound changes to the fabric of human society as it will redefine not just relationships between humans but also the relationship between humans and nature. And the environmental movement does not have the luxury of time, as we are less than a decade away from crossing the 1.5 °C warming red line.

The Intergovernmental Conference of Parties (COP), which meets yearly to discuss how to tackle climate change, has made little progress and degenerated into eco-tourism for its participants. No wonder then that it has been as the Circus of Parties.  And if an intergovernmental body does not provide solutions for climate change, only one other agency can do that—working people. Agency must now belong to working and vulnerable people of the world–Africans, Americans, Asians, Europeans, Australasians, people from Oceania–farmers and farm labourers, urban industrial workers, urban dwellers in slums and on pavements and under bridges; nomadic animal herders and communities of shepherds, forest dwelling hunter-gatherers, fishing communities around the world, mountain dwellers in remote regions, women whose labour is still largely invisible around the world. These are the men and women, sometimes children, who do not see their next meal if they do not work.

The working class is not the only section of society that will be affected by climate change. Old formulae, such as the industrial working class in advanced capitalist countries will be the agent of social change, must now be discarded. The agency of change will have to be an international rainbow coalition of working people who are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, peak oil and who bear the brunt of inequality. What form such a coalition may take, and the nature of the relationship between the coalition partners, are difficult to predict now.

In the Global South, building a people’s rainbow coalition on the climate crisis should begin with local issues, then link them to global warming. A good example of doing this is the 2024 Wayanad Landslide Disaster, which happened due to local and global interference with the environment. Both interferences were clearly visible to Wayanad residents. The impact of human interference with the global environment is climate change, which caused the extreme rainfall event that triggered the landslide. The impact of the interference with the local environment was the replacement of the original forest lands with plantations. Plantation roots do not grip the soil as well as those of forest species. Consequently, the soil on the slopes got washed away under extreme rain, and boulders came loose to cause a landslide.

Rainbow Coalition of Working People

Working people must now take on the task of tackling climate change, first by believing that they will be the agency for change, next by forming a rainbow coalition, and lastly by agreeing on an agenda for social change to usher in a sustainable, equitable and peaceful society. A rainbow coalition is a coming together of various sections of society, e.g., industrial, agricultural and gig workers, farmers, youth, etc.

There will be huge impediments in forming an international rainbow coalition—nationalism and national boundaries, vastly varying ecological regions with differing problems and priorities, language and cultural barriers, and ideological and methodological differences, lack of sufficient experience in forming rainbow coalitions, and lack of funds.

However, there are only two forks on the road we are travelling–one that will slowly and painfully move society towards becoming sustainable and equitable, and the other towards civilizational regress and possible collapse. We have to choose which fork we want society to take.

Popular articles in the media and research papers recommend action needed to tackle climate change.  They usually do not state who should take the action. But from their tone, their recommendations are for governments, intergovernmental agencies and international funders.

Why are recommendations being made to failing agencies? Why do the authors of these articles believe that their advice will be taken seriously by the failing agencies? Why do they not advise working people on what they should do to tackle climate change?

Submissions to SAPACC Dialogues

Those interested in responding to this post or make a fresh submission on a topic related to sustainability and equity may send it to [email protected]. Views expressed in the submissions to SAPACC Dialogues may not necessarily agree with SAPACC’s core beliefs.

While we have not yet decided on the maximum length of the submissions, they may be 500 words or more. For the time being, we can handle submissions in English.

South Asian People’s Action on Climate Crisis

The South Asian People’s Action on the Climate Crisis (SAPACC) is a platform of workers, farmers, youth, gender equality, women, and environmental organisations who are interested in working together on issues related to sustainability and equity. SAPACC was set up in 2019 by people from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

SAPACC’s core beliefs

Sustainability: Developed nations must pledge to become net carbon negative in consumption emissions by 2035-40 to create space for developing nations to fully decarbonise by 2045-50.

Note: Decarbonisation must focus primarily on: a) Mitigation focussed on the reduction of consumption levels in the Global North, and supply-side management, leaving >90% of the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground;  b)  Sequestration focussed on Nature-based Solutions that centre climate and social justice. In addition, decarbonisation strategies must eschew failed, untested, hypothetical market-based solutions and techno-fixes. Through these means, gross global consumption should be reduced to sustainable levels, the measure for which should be a quantifiable justice-centric sustainability index.

Environmental justice: a) Responsibility for loss & damage: Nations/regions should take responsibility for climate change impacts attributable to them—displacement, property loss, etc—in proportion to their cumulative emissions (emissions from 1750-to date); b) Sharing benefits and risks equitably: Engineering and administrative controls should be put into place (e.g., global warming mitigative and adaptive measures, facilitating population migration where risk becomes high) such that all people of the world face roughly the same degree of risk from the impacts of GHG emissions; and the wealth created by the use of fossil fuels are distributed equally to all people of the world.

Equity: The ratio of the maximum income consumption for all people in the world should be~5

Decentralisation, democratic, transparent governance: Governance should be decentralised and democratic; all governance information should be in the public domain.

Environmental remediation: Degraded land, water, air, and, to the extent possible, biodiversity should be remedied.

Natural resource sharing: To engender global peace, people should share natural resources cooperatively and equitably as usufruct rights (and not ownership rights).

Sagar Dhara is a Member of the most ferocious species that stalked Earth—humans; Male; Upper class & caste; College educated; City slicker. sagdhara@gmail,com