Books

Existential Politics

My forthcoming book, Existential Politics, explains why the Paris Agreement is Failing.  Governments have misdiagnosed the political problem of climate change, focusing relentlessly on measuring, reporting, and trading emissions. This technical approach of “managing tons” ignores the ways that climate change and climate policy will revalue assets, creating winners and losers. Policies such as net zero, carbon pricing, and offsets all cater to the losers—owners of fossil assets. But in reality, climate change is a political problem, not a technical one. Climate politics should be understood as existential—creating conflicts that arise when some actors face the prospect of the devaluation or elimination of their assets or competition from the creation of new ones. Fossil asset owners, such as oil and gas companies and electric utilities, stand to lose trillions in the energy transition. Thus, they are fighting to slow decarbonization and preserve the value of their assets. Green asset owners, who will be the basis of the decarbonized economy, are fewer in number and relatively weak politically.  Governments should use international tax, finance, and trade institutions to create new green asset owners and constrain fossil asset owners.

Rethinking Private Authority

My first book, Rethinking Private Authority, examines the role of non-state actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. It identifies two forms of private authority—one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them. Using new data compiled from the environmental arena, it examines the trajectory of private authority over the past century. The two case studies provide a history of carbon markets and carbon accounting – two policies which have non-state actors in central roles as private regulators.

  • “The most important book yet written on private authority in world politics…Rethinking Private Authority goes far beyond its title to provide a significant new foundation for the study of global governance.”

    – David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego

  • “It is an excellent, pathbreaking book.”

    – Kathryn Hochstetler, London School of Economics

  • “Green’s ambitious and thoughtful new book shows that private actors–NGOs and firms–often hold the keys to successful governance. Her study…is a big step forward in explaining how governance actually works.”

    – David G. Victor, University of California, San Diego

The Existential Politics of Climate Change

My second book, The Existential Politics of Climate Change, is under contract with Princeton University Press.  Watch this space!  It explains why the current global climate regime is failing, and offers a new approach for accelerating decarbonization – using international trade and finance institutions.