In The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism, Adrienne Buller, director of research at the British think tank Common Wealth, draws from many similarly egregious examples to investigate this contradiction. Companies across polluting sectors tout their green investments, portraying themselves as sustainable and future-oriented. If corporate action on climate has indeed ballooned, then why does the crisis continue to deepen? Buller reveals not just how “green capitalist” corporate strategies from both heavy-hitter polluters and the institutions that finance them fail to meaningfully address the climate crisis but also how they allow environmental destruction to continue unencumbered.
We spoke with Buller about the methods economists and asset managers use to quantify environmental value, the financial industry’s stake in climate response, and the ways that corporate governance is not democracy.
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CAL TURNER: In your discussion of how green capitalism arose, you begin with the decline of outright climate…
