John Fetter of the Institute for Policy Studies recently asked me for my views on Climate Debt. This video, in which I tried to diplomatically suggest that there might be better frames, is the result. I seem to be getting old, but this is still pretty coherent. www.ecoequity.org/2025/12/clim...

Time for my annual masochistic review of COP post morta. First one I "liked" is by Dyke and Rockstrom. theconversation.com/the-world-lo... Note: "The best science can offer today, is a future where peak warming reaches 1.7°C before returning to within 1.5°C in 75 years."

Check out Inequity, Inequality, Inaction, the new report fm the Civil Society Equity Review, just released in Belem. State of the debate work on global climate justice, and quantitative fair shares work to boot. Here's a good summary: www.ecoequity.org/2025/11/ten-... #FairShares #ClimateJustice

Tech along will of course not save us. We also need real and robust international cooperation. Not bloody likely at this level of extreme inequality. So interesting to see this amazing *international* study of support of various redistributionist strategies. See www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The First Politically Viable Wealth Tax? In California? No climate angle yet, but who cares. We'll get to that soon. For now, see prospect.org/2025/10/23/u...

This looks to me like a *definitive* critique of, not just offsets, but any market-based scheme that is not based on the rock solid verification of credit quality. Am I wrong? www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/news/carbon-...

Dave Roberts is right (again). Also, this is USEFUL work. There are so many details to keep straight. Best to keep our eyes on the BIG ones

Let's be clear: billionaires are driving the climate crisis. Despite contributing the least to climate change, it's people living in poverty who are disproportionately affected. The richest 1% emit as much carbon pollution as the poorest 5 BILLION people. PollutingElite.earth #PollutingElite

The Drawdown Solutions Explorer is pure Awesome. Seriously, look at it. Even you cynical bastards

🚨New research🚨Rich countries can unlock $6.6 trillion for climate action by ending fossil fuels handouts, making polluters pay, defunding wars, taxing the super rich. There’s no shortage of $$ for action. It’s just in the wrong hands. #FixtheFinance ➡️ Read more: oilchange.org/we-can-pay-for-it/

I know Adam Tooze writes too fucking much. But I'm very glad I read this. The funny thing is that it makes me feel better to know that the US is not, alone, going to write the story of the future. Which -- admit it -- we sometimes fall into thinking. adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

💰 Taxing the super-rich could solve many of our climate and inequality problems. But there are many myths around a tax on the millionaires and billionaires. 💡 Test your knowledge and share your score with us! #TaxTheSuperRich ‪

See Jonathon Porritt: "The IPCC: Can it regain its credibility?" My read is that we can still achieve 2C if all goes well, but of course it's not. I'm not a fatalist -- far from it -- but check out his list of the likely impacts of 2C of warming. www.meer.com/en/91051-the...

On another front, climate law, a huge event just finally went down. The International Court of Justice just released its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect to Climate Change, It was a somber event, and quite affecting to watch. webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1c...

Read Wen Stephenson’s (‪@learning2live.bsky.social‬) Learning to Live in the Dark. Lots of us have intermittently ruminated on the climate catastrophe, and its meaning, but Wen has done so with sustained attention, and fruitfully. His thoughts are useful, and sometimes even consoling.

Here's a timely reminder. #TaxTheRich

Killer opinion piece: On a Dying Multilateralism by Walden Bello, in Foreign Policy in Focus. "Is it possible to move towards a new, more participatory system of multilateralism without bringing forth a post-capitalist system of economic, social, and political relations?" fpif.org/requiem-for-...

The climate talks are in trouble, and it is not their fault. Point your finger at the global elites -- especially those in the Global North -- who are able to find money for their militaries, but not for climate or justice. Here's CAN press release from Bonn: climatenetwork.org/2025/06/26/b...

Did you love Robinson's Ministry for the Future but think it was maybe a wee bit too optimistic? What about Markley's great The Deluge? Did you think *it* was too optimistic? If so, you had best read Tim Winton's Juice. It's the climate future, and there are scores to be settled. Great book.

Is the "abundance" debate over? I hope not, because I just read this terrific piece in The Nation on how the Abundance folks and we (left) populists need each other. Really worth reading. See www.thenation.com/article/poli...

This is brief, but quite helpful on the key problem: "solar (and wind power) will continue to dominate marginal power system growth, but will struggle to cut into the fossil-fuel base" www.coldeye.earth/p/solar-prog...

Piketty and Nievas just released a pretty killer report on dependency theory. The thread that lays it out is at bsky.app/profile/did:... I'm no economic historian, but it seems plausible to me. Note also that the report's overall stance is pretty different from, say, the Hickel Fanning paper.

🚨Global economic relations have long been defined by imbalances and unequal power, not by self-correcting market forces, NEW STUDY finds. @thomaspiketty.bsky.social & @gatonievas.bsky.social call for structural reforms to the international monetary and exchange system. wid.world/news-article...

Let's call this good news -- climateanalytics.org/comment/reac... -- this in the precise sense that *very rapid action* could still bring us in under 1.5C. Like so:

Fun: since Trump was elected, support for international cooperation of all kinds has climbed sharply, from free trade to overseas assistance. Perhaps Trump’s real MAGA legacy will be Making Americans Globalists Again

NB: ‘Very few’ Africans place responsibility for climate action on ‘rich nations’ . I mentioned this to an African collogue, and she speculated that most of them blame God. See www.carbonbrief.org/survey-very-...

I'm still hoping for a renewal of democracy (see for example "liberal socialism") but this is just too good to ignore.. . . China Knows How to Deal with its Billionaires www.currentaffairs.org/news/china-k...

Boldly Go Where No Tax Has Gone Before . . . Tax Space Tourism. Sigh here: secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...

@learning2live.bsky.social has a long piece in @thebaffler.com that is very much worth the read. It's focused on the climate crisis in Nepal, but, actually, you should file it in the "macro in the micro" department. See thebaffler.com/salvos/down-...

Finally, a solid critique of #Abundance -- see An Abundance of Credulity by Hannah Story Brown @ prospect.org/culture/book.... Alas, it's a critique but not an alternative. I can already hear Ezra Klein asking how she intends to break the log-jam that keeps high-speed rail from being built.

This is very nice. A stepping stone to a new realism. www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Excessive Compensation taxes? I Seattle? Yes Indeed. inequality.org/article/seat...

I had no idea they were called "eat the rich" movies. My favorite is The Menu, but that's just me I guess. inequality.org/article/the-...

📽️Watch now! In our latest #TaxJusticeMinute, @alexcobham.bsky.social .bsky.social speaks live from the Vatican at the @icrict.bsky.social event on global tax justice. #TaxTheSuperRich #TaxThePower youtu.be/6x7KCzxbXmk?...

The great remaining uncertainty -- clouds -- may finally be getting sorted out. The news, though unsurprising, does not seem to be good. See www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Also . . .

Have you still not read The Deluge? Inside Climate News has a great interview with Stephen Markley, the author, on how it felt to write a novel that included a firestorm in LA, and then live through one. See insideclimatenews.org/news/2401202... And my review www.ecoequity.org/2023/03/why-....

My new piece for @thenation.com considers the media response to LA's wildfires from the hapless, incoherent liberal center. Facing the new climate reality requires more than liberal-technocratic tweaks. www.thenation.com/article/envi...

We should all, from time to time, take a straight-no-chaser shot of science-based pessimism cum realism. The next time you want one, remember David Spratt, from "Breakthrough," the Australian outfit, NOT the American one. His latest is is here. www.climatecodered.org/2025/01/mobi...

I am all for cutting all waste, incl government waste but let’s do it right. Thanks to @publiccitizen.bsky.social for laying out a plan to crackdown on corp handouts, tax the rich & invest in the future. www.citizen.org/article/doge...

Kim Stanley Robinson believes "a good result is not impossible yet" -- how's that for a modern utopia? See www.bloomberg.com/news/article...? To hear Stan's short-term transition vision, take it from 17:30

Oxfam's working definition of a individual emissions fair share (2.1 tonners per year) is painfully oversimplified, but it does have its uses. Witness its new report -- "Super-rich have already burned more than their fair share of carbon for 2025" www.climatechangenews.com/2025/01/10/o...

Here, to welcome you into the year and the future, is and absolutely terrifying aerial photo of the LA fire.

I think I'm going to be sick. "Chris Wright, Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary, says oil, gas and coal are key to solving global poverty." www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/c...

Among the great reports that came out during #COP29, which you could easily have missed is We Can Pay For it by Oil Change Internationals. www.oilchange.org/wp-content/u... We simply have to establish the point -- lack of money is not the problem. The problem is rather who has it.

My COP29 post-mortem, which is more than just a post-mortem. fpif.org/after-cop29-... Thoughts very welcome, even if you disagree. #COP29

I'm not always a fan of Fiona Harvey's analysis, though she gets a lot right. Like this . . . $COP29