The reality is big business and the capitalist class do not care about the environment. They only have one commitment: the pursuit of profit above all else.
COP30, the 30th instalment of the United Nations’ climate change conference, is scheduled to take place in Brazil later this year. In a stunning demonstration of the capitalist approach to ‘tackling’ the climate crisis, a new four-lane highway is being constructed directly through the Amazon rainforest to alleviate the expected traffic the event will bring.
This is despite the fact that 2024 was the hottest year on record, with global temperatures soaring past the 1.5°C Paris Agreement threshold for the first time. Arctic sea ice hit its lowest February extent ever. Wildfires, droughts and floods are intensifying across the world. The devastating reality of climate change is becoming clearer every day.
Impact of Trump
With the election of Donald Trump, we have seen the US withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, national electric vehicle targets removed, and the Environmental Protection Agency aiming to rip up almost every major environmental regulation on the books. But it isn’t only in the US where Trump is affecting climate policy. His administration is leveraging tariffs and military aid while hawking natural gas in energy deals with the likes of Ukraine and Japan, as well as encouraging greater US investment in the fossil fuel industry across Africa.
The impact of this is being seen across the world. Fossil fuel giants like BP, Shell and Equinor are scaling back “green investment,” instead “refocusing” on oil after Trump’s “drill baby drill” rhetoric. BP are increasing investments in oil and gas by 20%. They aren’t even shy about why they do this, with Murray Auchincloss, BP’s chief executive, saying that this is to boost profits for shareholders.
US corporate giants such as Walmart, American Airlines and Coca-Cola among others, have purged any references to their supposed dedication to tackling the climate crisis from their websites.
Most banks in the US and Canada have dropped their targets of “net-zero,” which like the other big corporations was only ever “greenwashing.”
The reality is big business and the capitalist class do not care about the environment. They only have one commitment: the pursuit of profit above all else. Any corporation that states that they are devoted to tackling the climate crisis, or tackling social issues like racism, do so because they have calculated that taking such a stance is a profitable PR exercise. As soon as it is no longer in their interest to take that stance, they will abandon it.
Meanwhile, in Britain, domestic energy prices remain completely out of control. Gas and electric bills are about 50% higher than they were pre-Covid and are expected to rise another 5% this year. All the while energy companies continue to post record profits!
Socialist Planning
We cannot rely on private companies to protect the interests of either the public or the climate, nor can we rely on establishment politicians to rein them in. We need to take the top polluting companies into democratic public ownership in order to place public health and the environment above profits. We need massive investment into public transport, along with jobs programs and retraining so those currently working in the fossil fuel industry can be transitioned into green jobs.
Above all, we need a democratically planned economy–one that can meet the needs of everyday working people while protecting the environment. Capitalism is a system that thrives on destruction, whether that be through war, dereliction or environmental catastrophe. It is only through socialism that we can be sure to reverse the devastation we are witnessing.
