Climate Change and Economic Self-Interest

In directing the Paris climate summit in 2015, Christiana Figueres, the UN climate chief, explicitly appealed to each country’s economic self-interest in her efforts to bring them to an agreement. This chapter discusses the use of self-interest rhetoric in discussions of climate change mitigation and adaptation. An outgrowth of the widespread influence of mainstream economic teaching, such rhetoric unnecessarily narrows the bounds of discussion in favor of entrenched power and entrenched analytical biases. Ignoring the evidence about what actually motivates people and nations, it unhelpfully discourages discussions of ethics and of commitment.