Climate and Capitalism

Module description

Climate change is without doubt the central challenge of our time. This course explores the role that global capitalism plays in climate breakdown and other environmental transformations. Furthermore, it assesses the highly uneven consequences of these transformations, and analyses the promise and pitfalls of different remedial measures proposed to address climate crisis.

The module addresses theories that offer very different accounts of the ways in which capitalist markets have variously contributed to, or can potentially ameliorate, our current ecological condition - including Environmental and Ecological Economics, along with Marxist, Feminist and Decolonial perspectives. The course ends by appraising the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary responses to these crises, ranging from those which entail the extension of markets to address environmental externalities, to those that advocate organizing society and nature along lines which move beyond the paradigm of continual growth.

The module will be of particular interest to students wishing to pursue careers that address contemporary environmental challenges including: impact investment; environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG); government climate policy; academic or consultancy-based research, environmental activism, and intergovernmental environmental diplomacy

*Please note that module information is provisional and may change year to year.

Assessment details

One 4000-word essay (100%)

Educational aims & objectives

This module explores the relationship between capitalism and climate change from a global perspective. Specifically, we focus on debates surrounding the causes and consequences of accelerating climate crisis in the twentieth-century, and we assess the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of remedial action. In so doing, the module will help students develop an understanding of the political economy context for what is widely known as the Anthropocene: the era in which humanity, or at least one subset of humanity, has become the primary geological force.

Through lectures, seminars and independent study, students will gain a strong knowledge of the key political economy approaches to climatic and broader environmental change, and they will be able to appraise the merits and demerits of each of these approaches. Furthermore, the module will enable students to develop an in-depth understanding of the manifold and interconnected ecological crises that are now unfolding across the biosphere ? from global warming, to ocean acidification, deforestation, and mass species extinction.

The module avoids both catastrophism and complacence by exploring the positive steps that are being made to avert the most severe forms of environmental degradation, while at the same time illuminating the distributional effects of different forms of environmental governance. In so doing, students will arrive at a clearer view of the main beneficiaries of existing arrangements, and will thereby better understand why the most far-reaching initiatives to avoid ecosystem collapse have been circumscribed.

In pursuing these aims, the module encourages a holistic understanding of humans' embeddedness in, and uneven effects on, the biosphere. Through fostering this holistic understanding, students will be encouraged to think in ways that traverse the disciplinary divides between politics and economics, and the social sciences and the natural sciences.

Learning outcomes

In working towards the module aims, students will develop a range of transferable skills suitable for a career in business, consultancy, government, academia as well as international and non-governmental organizations. These transferable skills range from:

• Developing a knowledge of the political-economic context of environmental challenges, which can be applied in a range of career settings including in environment, social and corporate governance (ESG), impact investment, climate policy, campaign-led organizing, and environmental diplomacy
• Cognitive and communication skills that enable students to recognize ethical and social issues, to understand environmental challenges holistically, and to create knowledge that can help shape the future
• Writing persuasive, grammatically correct and properly referenced papers which showcase the high-levels of intellectual curiosity and nuanced thinking so greatly prized by organizations within public, private and non-profit sectors
• Understanding the demands of independent learning, self-management and critical thinking in work settings within and beyond academia
• Gathering evidence to understand the impact of contextual factors in global shifts, and the global drivers of local transformations, in climate governance and environmental management
• Developing the interpersonal skills required to engage in courteous, considered and structured seminar discussions with fellow students as preparation for interactions with colleagues in a professional work environment after graduation

Teaching pattern

One-hour lecture and one-hour seminar, weekly

Part I. Setting the Scene

Week 1: The Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration

 Part II. Theories

Week 2: Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics

Week 3: Marxism and Political Ecology 

Week 4: Feminist and Decolonial Perspectives 

Part III. Responses to Environmental Crisis

Week5: International Governance and Climate Negotiations

Week6 : Carbon Markets and Carbon Taxes

Week7: Sustainable Finance and Corporate Environmentalism

Week8 : Geoengineering

Week 9: Social Movements, Environmental Justice and a Green New Deal

Week10 : Degrowth and Post-Capitalist Futures

Note that this teaching schedule is provisional and subject to change.

Suggested reading list

• Angus, I. (2016) Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System. London: Monthly Review Press
• Betsill, M.M., Hochstetler, K., Stevis, D. (2014). Advances in International Environmental Politics. London: Palgrave.
• Bonneuil, C. and Fressoz, J.B. (2016). The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us. London: Verso.
• Brown, G. and Timmerman, P. (eds.) (2015). Ecological Economics for the Anthropocene: An Emerging Paradigm. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Cato, M.S. (2011) Environment and Economy. London: Routledge.
• Daly, H.E. and Farley, J. (2003). Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications. London: Island Press
• Death, C. (2014). Critical Environmental Politics. London: Routledge.
• Falkner, R. (2013). The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
• Hanley, N., Shogren, J. and White, B. (2013) Introduction to Environmental Economics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hornborg, A., Clark, B. and Hermele, K. (eds.) (2015) Ecology and Power: Struggles over land and material resources in the past, present, and future. London: Routledge.
• Kütting, G. (2011). Global Environmental Politics: Concepts, Theories and Case Studies. London: Routledge.
• MacGregor, S. (ed.) (2017). Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment. London: Routledge.
• Moore, J.W. et al. (ed.) (2016) Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. California: PM Press.
• Newell, P.J. and Roberts, T. (2016). The Globalization and Environment Reader. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
• Peet, R., Robbins, P. and Watts, M. (2011) Global Political Ecology. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
• Perreault, T.A., Bridge, G., McCarthy, J. (2015) Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology. New York: Routledge.
• Robbins, P., Hintz, J., Moore, S.A. (2010) Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Smith, S. (2011) Environmental Economics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sollund, R.A. (ed.) (2015) Green Harms and Crimes: Critical Criminology in a Changing World. London: Palgrave.

• Katz-Rosene, R., & Paterson, M. (2018). Thinking Ecologically about the Global Political Economy. London: Routledge

• Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2017). A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. University of California Press.

• Newell, P. (2021). Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of Energy Transitions. Cambridge University Press.

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.