Profiting in a Warming World

Matthew Soener ()
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Matthew Soener: OSC - Observatoire sociologique du changement (Sciences Po, CNRS) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Economic growth is a key contributor to climate change, but undergirding growth is capitalist profitability. In this article, I refine this long‐standing relationship between growth and emissions by estimating if the profit rate and the "exploitation rate" (surplus profits / wages and salaries) predict greenhouse gas emissions. I do so in a sample of advanced capitalist economies from 1995 to 2016 with profitability data on four industries (agriculture, manufacturing/construction, energy, and transportation) as well as greenhouse gas emissions data for both those industries and emissions at the national level. Methodologically, I use two‐way fixed effects models and panel‐corrected standard errors. My results show that the total profit and exploitation rates are positively associated with emissions. Exploitation in the transportation and manufacturing/construction sectors, moreover, is also positively associated with emissions. This article provides empirical support for those in environmental sociology claiming that capitalist profitability is a key driver of climate change and ecological change is inseparable from unequal social relations.

Keywords: Climat change; Profit; Environmental sociology; Political economy; Emissions; Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Sociological forum, 2019, 34 (4), pp.974 - 998. ⟨10.1111/socf.12559⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03381040

DOI: 10.1111/socf.12559

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