Episode 4.3: Radical Pragmatism with Dr. Jessica F. Green

Welcome to spooky season and to a new season of Battle Rhythm, with co-hosts Dr. Wendy H. Wong (Professor of Political Science and Principal’s Research Chair at the University of British Columbia) and Steve Saideman. Steve shares insights from the German-Norweigan consortium to supply submarines to Canada and he and Wendy discuss the defence diplomacy involved along with protesting and what it means for democracy. In today’s feature interview, Wendy interviews Dr. Jessica F. Green, they discuss her book Existential Politics and her research focused on global governance, the politics of decarbonization, carbon pricing, and non-state actors. Jessica Green is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is also cross-appointed in the School of Environment. She has previously held positions at Case Western University (in Cleveland, OH) and New York University (in NYC). Her newly released book, Existential Politics, explains why the Paris Agreement is Failing. Governments have misdiagnosed the political problem of climate change, focusing relentlessly on measuring, reporting, and trading emissions. This technical approach of “managing tons” ignores the ways that climate change and climate policy will revalue assets, creating winners and losers. Policies such as net zero, carbon pricing, and offsets all cater to the losers—owners of fossil assets. But in reality, climate change is a political problem, not a technical one. Climate politics should be understood as existential—creating conflicts that arise when some actors face the prospect of the devaluation or elimination of their assets or competition from the creation of new ones. Fossil asset owners, such as oil and gas companies and electric utilities, stand to lose trillions in the energy transition. Thus, they are fighting to slow decarbonization and preserve the value of their assets. Green asset owners, who will be the basis of the decarbonized economy, are fewer in number and relatively weak politically. Governments should use international tax, finance, and trade institutions to create new green asset owners and constrain fossil asset owners. https://www.greenprofgreen.com/about Join us in Ottawa on November 13th at 6pm at the Lord Elgin Hotel, where Dr. Green will hold a public launch of her book and discussion about her research.