Asset Revaluation and the Existential Politics of Climate Change
By J. Colgan, Jessica F. Green, Thomas N. Hale. International Organization, 2020
211 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Whereas scholars have typically modeled climate change as a global collective action challenge, we offer a dynamic theory of climate politics based on the present and future revaluation of assets. Climate politics can be understood as a contest between owners of assets that accelerate climate change, such as fossil fuel plants, and owners of assets vulnerable to climate change, such as coastal property. To date, obstruction by “climate-forcing” asset holders has been a large barrier to effective climate policy. But as climate change and decarbonization policies proceed, holders of both climate-forcing and “climate-vulnerable” assets stand to lose some or even all of their assets' value over time, and with them, the basis of their political power. This dynamic contest between opposing interests is likely to intensify in many sites of political contestation, from the subnational to transnational levels. As it does so, climate politics will become increasingly existential, potentially reshaping political alignments within and across countries. Such shifts may further undermine the Liberal International Order (LIO); as countries develop pro-climate policies at different speeds and magnitudes, they will have incentives to diverge from existing arrangements over trade and economic integration.
Subfields: Economics and Econometrics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d71ac64661b93dabe9abebf7a056da2ae3fdfa6f
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Citations in the corpus
- Transition, hedge, or resist? Understanding political and economic behavior toward decarbonization in the oil and gas industry (2020, background): “This creates a potential existential crisis as the industry confronts climate change, creating a strong incentive to resist decarbonization (Colgan et al., 2021).”
- Institutions, Climate Change, and the Foundations of Long-Term Policymaking (2019, background): “To be sure, a number of different types of firms fall into this category (Kelsey, 2018) and their preferences will vary (Colgan et al., 2020; Cory et al., 2020; Downie, 2017; Genovese & Tvinnereim, 2019; Meckling, 2015).”