ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 explores the dominant way that actors in the global political economy have organized environmental policy since the 1980s – in accordance with neoliberal norms, structures and forces. It starts by showing the close relationship between dominant ideas in environmental policy, especially concerning the creation of new markets in tradable pollution rights, and neoliberal ideas. Focusing on the work of Ronald Coase, it shows that in many ways, neoliberal ideas have a distinct ecological content focusing on the normative value of private property. It then explores the distinction between neoliberal ‘rollback’, involving a rolling back of the gains in environmental policy made during the 1970s, and neoliberal ‘rollout’, whereby environmental policy is constructed more actively in the service of creating new forms of markets and commodities. It then explores one of the principal instances of this ‘rollout’, in the development of carbon markets to address climate change. Finally, it returns to the question of resistance, focused on the opponents of the environmental commodification integral to neoliberalism’s approach to environmental policy.
