Public policy in New Zealand, as in other rich nations, is directed by capitalist interests. The public, however, is increasingly realising that capitalist interests do not align with those of society and nature. Can corporate sustainability and sustainable finance institutions make the switch from representing capitalism to helping businesses evolve beyond its grasp?
Look at how accurately this article in The Guardian by post growth academic Jason Hickel and former finance minister Yaris Varoufakis applies to NZ.
“Renewables are already much cheaper than fossil fuels. Alas, fossil fuels are up to three times as profitable. Thus capital forces governments to link electricity prices to the price of the most expensive liquified natural gas, not of cheap solar energy. Similarly, building and maintaining motorways is many times more lucrative for private contractors, car manufacturers and oil companies than a modern network of superfast, safe public railways. So capitalists continue to push our governments to subsidise fossil fuels and road building, even while the world burns.”
⛽🚗🔥 + profit for the few
OR
☀️🚝🌏+ shared prosperity
Hickel and Varoufakis suggest three steps out of capitalism:
1) a new financial architecture with a new public investment bank
2) deliberative democracy to decide regional goals
3) a Corporate Reform Act to democratise companies, each employee with a share and a vote
New Zealand’s corporate sustainability and sustainable finance institutions represent and are funded by capitalists and aim to gradually reproduce a capitalism that is less harmful. But I have no doubt the people working in these organisations want to achieve more and faster. Public values are shifting away from the old political consensus that has kept us building FF infrastructures to fuel private wealth instead of investing in public goods. Can “sustainability” institutions latch onto rising public sentiment and help businesses engage with leading edge economic ideas and transition out of capitalism to support effective social and ecological change?
The messy space of transition toward a post capitalist, post growth economy is where we need to be building capability. The demands of leadership are changing toward the ability to negotiate two sets of paradigmatic forces, the dominant and the fast emerging – the X curve. New leaders will be comfortable with ambiguity, friction and conflict and have the credibility to forge new collaborations and consultations.
This future is exciting. It’s the way out of this fiery crisis.
Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash
Heliocene 