Gus Speth has a new article in Common Dreams in which he makes the case for pushing for near-term climate action while simultaneously pushing for non-reformist reforms that will lead to a more equitable and sustainable system. You can read an excerpt below and the full piece here.
Thinking this way, many have come to the conclusion that successfully addressing climate change requires system change. Yet, as I hope I have just shown, it is also true that system change requires successfully addressing climate change. Is there a quandary here? Successfully addressing climate change requires moving to a new system, but moving to a new system requires successfully addressing climate change.
The answer is to envision both transitions, to climate success and to system change, as each happening together, both in two phases. In the nearer term, serious climate action is launched within the framework of our current political economy, and system change begins with seemingly modest efforts, including what are sometimes called non-reformist reforms. Such initiatives seem merely reformist, but they contain the seeds of real change. In the longer term, deeper new system efforts are undertaken and that in turn facilitates more rapid, sustained, and effective climate action.
