Conclusion: A Way Forward

This book is founded on three premises. First, we accept the scientific consensus that the Earth’s climate is changing due to global warming caused by human activities that have resulted in too many greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. Climate change should, if possible, be mitigated. Secondly, we assume that the countries that are the major emitters of GHGs will continue to organize their political economies as some distinct variety of capitalism, and that liberal capitalism is one of these. All states, including liberal capitalist states, cannot easily choose to alter the institutions that underpin their variety of capitalism. Thirdly, we accept that the governments of these states would more readily mitigate climate change if they could avoid regulating social activity or harming economic growth. In short, the puzzle this book has addressed is how to mitigate dangerous climate change within a capitalist economy without significantly changing the socio-economic system or retarding social welfare.1