Tom Athanasiou

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...

Indeed. Though the truth is that the tech revolution, crucial though it may be, is not enough. We also need cooperation, and it is impossible at this level of inequality.

Check this out. High quality international polling on various redistributionist strategies, from Nature Human Behavior:

Unveiled Today: The First Politically Viable Wealth Tax - The American Prospect A proposed 2026 California ballot measure would tax billionaires’ fortunes to fund imperiled health access for 15 million state Medicaid recipients. The spillover effects of its presence on the midter...

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...

Unveiled Today: The First Politically Viable Wealth Tax - The American Prospect A proposed 2026 California ballot measure would tax billionaires’ fortunes to fund imperiled health access for 15 million state Medicaid recipients. The spillover effects of its presence on the midter...

Absolutely, and it's about time. See prospect.org/2025/10/23/u...

Carbon offsets have failed for 25 years, and most should be phased out - research Academics at the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania have conducted the most comprehensive review of evidence on the effectiveness on carbon offsetting to date and concluded the pr...

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

We Can Pay For It - Oil Change International We Can Pay for It factsheet shows rich counties can unlock $6.6 trillion for climate action

🚨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/

Chartbook 402 Dual-circulation: travels through China in the summer of 2025. Looking back, the first few months of this summer feel to me like a slow escape from the terrible vortex of US politics.

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-...

What do you know about taxing the super-rich? Are you ready for a challenge? Test your knowledge about taxing the super-rich and see your score! #TaxTheSuperRich

💰 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 ‪

Lovely piece in Crikey. My question is why performative fatalism is so popular?

The IPCC: Can it regain its credibility? A critical examination of climate science risk assessments and the growing challenge from global actuaries

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...

THE HAGUE – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivers its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivers its advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.

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

On a Dying Multilateralism - FPIF What can replace the global order?

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.

The Abundance Debate Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It. Populists and abundance proponents have retreated into factional warfare. But both sides need to realize that they need each other.

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...

Solar Progress Monday 9 June 2025

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.

Colonial extraction and unequal exchange have shaped two centuries of North-South inequality - WID - World Inequality Database In a new study, Gastón Nievas and Thomas Piketty examine patterns of global imbalances, current account surplus/deficit and net foreign wealth accumulation over more than two centuries.

🚨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

Survey: ‘Very few’ Africans place responsibility for climate action on ‘rich nations’ - Carbon Brief A new survey reveals that "very few" Africans place responsibility for climate action on “rich countries”.

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-...

China Knows How to Deal with its Billionaires In the United States, wealthy individuals like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are allowed to dominate the country’s politics and economy. But there is another way.

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...

Dear billionaires… This week, Jeff Bezos skyrocketed the pop star Katy Perry and five other celebrity women on a pointless 11 minute joy-ride into space. Meanwhile the world burns below and ordinary people struggle to f...

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

Down by the River | Wen Stephenson In Nepal, financial ascendancy is outpaced by its increasing vulnerability to climate change.

@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-...