Fixing Climate Change Today by Mortgaging the Future

1/25/20230 min read

In his elucidation of the spatiotemporal fix, Carton (2018) describes the climate emergency as being fixed, in 3 senses, in both space and time.

Spatially, since capitalism subsists on and tends to promote inequality and struggle, it needs to seek out new channels to invest excess capital and thus “new spaces of accumulation” (Carton 2018:753). In this context, fixing first manifests in the construction of fixed capital assets such as infrastructure (Carton 2018). Second, the fix refers to the immobility of those fixed capital assets, rendering them vulnerable to depreciation (Carton 2018). Third, not dissimilar to how a sports game or boxing match may be fixed, the “superstructure” of “capitalist hegemony” (Carton 2018:756). strengthens and perpetuates ongoing socioeconomic carbon-intensive practices.

Temporally, Carton (2018) explains that, if current climate targets are to be fulfilled, a large proportion of existing fossil fuel reserves will need to be abandoned, leading to “a fixed capital devaluation of epic proportions” (Carton 2018:756), and resulting in the development of the “political economy of delay”, i.e. a framework within which the structures and processes of society, culture, and economy work together to defer or slow down the weakening of the value of those fixed fossil fuel assets and investments (Carton 2018).

In the concept of a carbon budget, a certain quantity of carbon emissions or carbon “expenditures” (Carton 2018:758) is permitted while maintaining global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (compared to pre-industrial levels). Negative emissions play the role of carbon “incomes” (Carton 2018:758). In the metaphor of a mortgage, therefore, negative emission technologies (“NETs”) function as a type of debt in which the continuation of existing fossil fuel-reliant asset growth is underwritten by the welfare of future humans (Carton 2018).

Given the broad range of uncertainties and drawbacks currently surrounding NETs, the author’s critique and employment of a mortgage metaphor is reasonable and well-founded. These issues around NETs include:

  • High number of participants required to sufficiently upscale and diffuse NETs

  • Safety and effectiveness being highly contingent on future political circumstances of NET sites

  • Substantial upfront capital costs

  • Complexity of navigating national and international responsibilities for implementation

  • Likely conflict around food security, land use, biodiversity, and utilisation of ecosystem services

  • Difficulties in obtaining public consent for international or cross-border implementation

  • Early stages of innovation and lack of present-day application of NETs

  • Lack of knowledge of potential pitfalls of NET usage

  • Insufficient understanding of intricate carbon processes and dynamics

    (Minx et al 2018).

References:

  • Carton, W. (2018). ‘“Fixing” climate change by mortgaging the future: negative emissions, spatiotemporal fixes, and the political economy of delay’. Antipode 51(3) 2018, pp.750–769.

  • Minx, J.C., W.F. Lamb, M.W. Callaghan, S. Fuss, J. Hilaire, F. Creutzig, T. Amann, T. Beringer, W. de Oliveira Garcia, J. Hartmann, and T. Khanna. (2018). ‘Negative emissions—Part 1: Research landscape and synthesis’, Environmental Research Letters 13(6) 2018, p.063001.