Privatizing Climate Change: A New Research Agenda for Environmental Sociology?

• In Event: 50620 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10: Environmental Sociology Imaginations and Futures

Abstract

The withdrawal of the Trump Administration from the Paris Agreement and its defunding of federal environmental initiatives poses urgent questions: With such federal retreat, are U.S. efforts to address climate change now primarily left to blue states and the private sector? This shift compels environmental sociologists to explore with greater urgency the privatization of climate change as a groundbreaking research agenda. Given the limited reach of public resources at the state level alone, we argue that the privatization of climate change must become a new research agenda for environmental sociologists. To reach net zero in greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid serious climate tipping points, global climate-change-related investments must skyrocket from $1.27 trillion a year in 2023 to an estimated $15-24 trillion a year by 2050. Limited public funds, including those from the U.S. before Trump, accounted for 51% of total climate finance flows and are unlikely to increase sufficiently. Private investments, especially from major corporations, the financial services industry, and other private actors are essential to fill this enormous gap, which experts predict will be 90% of future financial flows to climate change. In short, the world community will increasingly need to rely on the private sector to address this global problem. Greater privatization will not only continue to alter environment-society relationships but also intensify socio-economic disparities by redefining risk and moving the climate crisis from a collective action problem to a privately managed concern. We outline a nascent research agenda for environmental sociologists focusing on corporate activities and investment firms' roles in addressing the global crisis. This suggests a potentially new collaboration between environmental sociology, economic sociology, and sustainable businesses. Brent Hoagland, Seukyoung Lee, and Steven R. Brechin Department of Sociology, Rutgers University

Authors

• Steven R. Brechin, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

• Brent Hoagland, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

• Seukyoung Lee, Rutgers University-New Brunswick