ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 presents an economic account of the greatest crisis facing humanity: the climate emergency. It explores how public engagement in the Youth Strikes for Climate and Extinction Rebellion has shifted the Overton window, changing the range of acceptable discussion and making far more radical proposals for action possible in a very short time. The chapter introduces the issue with an account of how economists first encountered the issue of climate change before outlining the favoured policy response amongst economists: to attempt to create a market for carbon in the global market system. A critique of the limitations of this market approach is made before considering a wider range of policy proposals, especially considering the need to price CO2 emissions and the central tool of a carbon tax, as well as a more radical cap-and-share proposal. The chapter asks how we should all behave in a climate emergency before considering in detail its impact on our land, food and farming system.
