More capitalism than climate

Akshat Rathi's Climate Capitalism delves into the intricate dance between capitalism, greed and our climate-related problems today, exploring what it will take to build an ecosystem for change

Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions

Author: Akshat Rathi

Publisher:  John Murray Press

Pages: 260

Price: Rs 699

It bears no repetition that climate change is real. Still, here’s a glimpse of what it means: According to the findings of the 19th World Meteorological Congress held in Geneva earlier this year, between 1970 and 2021, 11,778 disasters led to over 2 million deaths and resulted in “$4.3 trillion in economic losses.” Furthermore, over 90 per cent “of the reported deaths worldwide occurred in developing countries”.

Naturally, one is bound to ask: Is it possible to alter the pace  at which climate is being impacted? Can investment in technologies result in “net zero emissions”? Balancing carbon emitted with what’s removed from the atmosphere appears to be a simple mathematical equation. Sadly, this equation involves multiple variables, not to discount the single-most factor that has led us here: Greed. Or, to put it more elegantly, capitalism, which has adversely impacted climate. Can, however, the former and the latter be fused together to build an ecosystem for change? The concept may sound oxymoronic, but that’s what Akshat Rathi — award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News—offers in his book Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions.

Divided into 12 chapters, the book effortlessly jumps from problem statements to solutions or solution providers through its elegant prose and seemingly balanced, optimistic outlook. It begins with an extremely provocative sentence: “It’s now cheaper to save the world than destroy it”. On the face of it, that statement may appear to be a clarion call to change. In fact, it’s indicative of helplessness. Mr Rathi explains the overarching problem, which can be summarised as follows. Fossil fuels aren’t cleaner sources of energy. In the sense that they pollute the environment. Economic feasibility and affordability, however, drive their usage. Still, Mr Rathi appears optimistic: “That things keep getting worse, however, should not hide the fact that the scale of climate change is also growing. There are now more people working on solutions, more money available to scale those solutions and more government policies in place to help reach emission goals.”

In the second chapter, he offers a case in point, outlining the contribution of Wan Gang, China’s former Minister of Science and Technology and an expert on electric vehicles (EVs). The chapter celebrates Mr Gang’s professional insights, forward-looking attitude, and economy of scale. How feasible is the growing use of batteries and their impacts on the environment, however, was worth exploring. Statistics would tell an interesting, alternative story.

In the next chapter, the author offers a glimpse of production inside Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (CATL). The tone of Mr Rathi’s writing here signals more awe and less objective reporting. It was, however, heartening to find him mentioning the exploitation of children in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo,  convincing evidence that he was not wholly deluded by the people he was meeting while working on this book.

But this thought receded almost immediately while reading the story of Srinivas — a local farmer in Pavagada (a taluk in Karnataka). The 50-year-old farmer was able to send his daughters to university using the lease income from the land he leased  to the government for the construction of the Pavagada Solar Park. Completed in 2019, the plant’s capacity is 2,050 MW. It’s a peg, however, for the story of Sumant Sinha, founder of ReNew Power.

It’s worth noting that Mr Sinha has also endorsed the book, calling it “a great chronicler of how people have brought government policy and private capital together to shift gears on the clean energy transition.” Not only Mr Sinha but “philanthropist” Bill Gates’ quote also features on the book’s cover.

Mr Rathi may need to reacquaint himself with the definition of “conflict of interest”. One can’t praise the efforts of businessmen  and get them to back one’s work in return. Vandana Shiva, who has a few things to share on how Mr Gates makes money and is in turn able to give it away to charity, would also be of interest to him.  Mr Rathi  has laboured to explain several scientific techniques, processes, technologies, and climate litigation in the  simplest possible manner. Also, Vicki Hollub’s story of becoming the first woman to head a major oil company (Occidental Petroleum) was an endearing read, and so was Danish Oil and Natural Gas’s incredible story of transitioning towards clean energy and transforming itself to Ørsted. Ironically, “The Capitalist” is the only chapter in which Mr Rathi is clearly able to demonstrate how a master’s tools can’t be used to dismantle master’s house, as Audre Lorde put it, for capitalism is what has shaped the world the way it is: An inhabitable place for those who didn’t — or had a minimal role — in contributing to its present state.

There are multiple examples in the book, however, that help one reconcile with the fact that while climate capitalism sounds counterintuitive, ultimately money does drive things in the internecine world we live in.

The reviewer is a Delhi-based writer