Can capitalism effectively respond to climate change? Do we need a different type of capitalism that is able to deliver growth but on a low-carbon basis? If so, how do we get there?

These are the ambitious questions we address in this book. These are not just technical questions about whether the technologies exist to get us out of this mess or whether the right policies exist to confront these challenges. They are about questions of strategy, politics and power. How do we begin to assemble the alliances and coalitions that are necessary to transform the global economy? How do we get those with power to support efforts to fundamentally change the way our economies develop?

Climate Capitalism shows that new, interesting and surprising things are happening in the world of climate politics. Advances can be made when environmental activists get together with city financiers, or when carbon traders and development NGOs put their minds together to get money to flow into low-carbon development. This is not politics as usual. Nor can it afford to be. But like it or not, in the short- and near-term, responses to climate change will be shaped by the way that capitalism currently works. So it is crucial to understand how capitalism has shaped responses to climate change to date and to explore the different ways in which it might do so in the future.