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2018 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

15. Human Capital in a Climate-Changed World

verfasst von : Shi-Ling Hsu

Erschienen in: Climate Change and Its Impacts

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

At the center of the crisis of climate change is an amazingly efficient but inert fossil fuel-centered energy industry. What makes the energy industry so inert is its massive stock of capital: the facilities, structures, networks, and other physical assets required to extract, process, distribute, and combust fossil fuels. This capital stock is predicated on fossil fuel exploitation, and does not adapt well to alternative methods of meeting energy needs. Fossil fuel subsidies have bloated capital investments in the energy sector, producing low prices and in turn, economic development. It has thus been widely assumed that this is the most reliable model for economic development. Two things have become increasingly clear: (i) that fossil fuel subsidies and low energy prices are not a condition precedent to economic development, and (ii) human capital development, primarily through broad provision of education, is a condition precedent to economic development. The climate crisis highlights the environmental harms of fossil fuel combustion, but it also shines a spotlight on the faulty economic reasoning behind a fossil fuel-centered model of economic growth. This chapter suggests that as a minimum, two no-regrets policies be linked: the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies, and the robust financing of broader access to education. The climate crisis introduces a new set of inequalities, those in which some countries have benefited disproportionately from the combustion of fossil fuels, and a mostly different set of countries will suffer disproportionately from the harms of climate change. Effecting a direct transfer of fossil fuel subsidies to educational objectives simultaneously reduces the inert capital in fossil fuel industries, increases more productive capital in the form of human capital, and provides a compensatory mechanism for those disproportionately harmed by climate change. Ultimately, the most beneficial and lasting aid that can be provided for developing countries most vulnerable to climate change is one that increases human capital through broad educational initiatives.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Neoliberal (Mis)Management of Earth-Time and the Ethics of Climate Justice

Nächstes Kapitel A Wild Solution for Climate Change

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Titel: Human Capital in a Climate-Changed World
verfasst von: Shi-Ling Hsu
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Climate Change and Its Impacts
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77543-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-77544-9

Copyright-Jahr: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77544-9_15

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