Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.

The evidence for rapid human-caused climate change keeps piling up, yet the world continues to flood the atmosphere with greenhouse gases amid a political backlash against the struggle for a future free of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, which means humans are continuing to make the climate crisis worse. Global average temperatures are expected to stay at record levels for the 2026-2030 period, exceeding preindustrial averages by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. As global warming speeds up, events like wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods will become more intense, and there will be a substantial increase in premature deaths, with the overwhelming majority occurring in low-and middle-income countries. The climate crisis presents a grave threat to life on Earth, although scientists have now scrapped the worst-case climate scenario on account of the expansion of renewable energy — which means there is still hope.

In the interview that follows, world-renowned economist Robert Pollin talks about the forces resisting green transition and highlights the results of a major study he and some of his co-workers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) produced for advancing a green transition in Michigan. According to Pollin, there are simply no technical or economic considerations preventing Michigan and other U.S. states from achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Pollin is distinguished professor of economics and co-director of PERI at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

C. J. Polychroniou: Over the past few years, we have observed the climate crisis taking a back seat to geopolitical conflicts and wars, but also to immediate economic concerns such as inflation. Indeed, climate action is colliding with political and economic realities and, subsequently, climate change is no longer a top issue in the international policy agenda. Moreover, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has called the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) net zero modeling “ridiculous” and European leaders themselves are also divided over the pace of the green transition. Why would a green transition be fueling backlash, and what might be the consequences of more inaction on climate change?

Robert Pollin: By far, the largest factor driving the global climate crisis is the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas to produce energy. This is because burning fossil fuels to produce energy generates carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In turn, the accumulated stock of CO2 in the atmosphere is the primary source of rising average global temperatures.

Once we start from these straightforward facts, it becomes obvious as to why there is a global pushback against a green transition project. While burning fossil fuels to produce energy is driving the climate crisis, it is also delivering gigantic profits for fossil fuel corporations. A recent Oxfam study projects 2026 profits for the six largest fossil fuel corporations — Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and TotalEnergies — to reach $94 billion. These companies and their shareholders are not about to surrender $94 billion without a fight. Such cash piles also make it easy to buy off politicians. Donald Trump leads the pack here, such as with his ridiculous pronouncement last September before the UN General Assembly that the climate crisis is “the greatest con job in history.”

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are Leading the US and EU Into Industrial Decline

But it’s not just greedy corporations and corrupt politicians who resist the green transition. Not surprisingly and with good reason, it also includes a fair share of working people whose livelihoods are tied to the fossil fuel industry as well as governments which depend on fossil fuel tax revenues to finance their social spending. For example, the state of New Mexico finances nearly half of its entire state budget through oil and gas tax revenues. Figuring out alternative funding sources to pay New Mexico’s public school teachers and health care workers is not obvious.

Of course, none of this means that giving up on the green transition is an option. The reality of the climate crisis doesn’t just go away. A widely reported recent study did lower its high-end forecast of the extent of global warming up to the year 2100, from 5.0 degrees to 3.5 degrees Celsius (C) above preindustrial levels — 9.0degrees to 6.3degrees Fahrenheit (F). But let’s put this new estimate in context. To date, the extent of global warming is at 1.4 degrees C (2.5 degrees F) — i.e., nowhere close to an increase of 3.5 degrees C, much less of 5........

© Truthout