Socialist Alternative members on the People's Climate March in New York, 21 September 2014, photo Socialist Alternative

Socialist Alternative members on the People’s Climate March in New York, 21 September 2014, photo Socialist Alternative   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are due to pass a major milestone this year. Avoiding a calamitous 2°C temperature rise will need a 40 to 70% emissions cut by 2050.

The Met Office has found that CO2 concentration is about to reach 400 parts per million. It must stabilise at no higher than 450 to avoid the 2°C disaster. But far from falling, CO2 emissions have actually risen by a quarter since 1997.

Year after year, climate summits set new and insufficient targets, and promise new and insufficient action to achieve them. Then politicians go back home to their big business paymasters, who remind them that tackling climate change dents profits.

Stopping climate tragedy requires us to remove the profit motive. The trillions stowed away by big business and the super-rich, if commonly owned and democratically planned, could guarantee clean energy. The Socialist says you have to be red to be green.

  • ‘Planning for the Planet’ by Pete Dickenson: how socialism could save the environment – £9.95 from leftbooks.co.uk