All Economic Policy Is Climate Policy: Tools for a Post-Neoliberal Green Transition

May 11, 2022

The climate crisis is critical context for the Roosevelt Institute’s work across our five program areas. Whether considering outsized corporate power, industrial policy, labor rights, civil rights, or macroeconomic policies, the climate crisis dictates both what is necessary and what is possible. It is increasingly clear that the obstacles to achieving a truly equitable economy—for example, excessive corporate power and deference to the market—are also key barriers to effectively addressing the climate crisis.



In a series of issue briefs from across our program areas, the Roosevelt Institute investigates how the climate crisis intersects with many dimensions of our economy. These briefs explore a range of topics, from how reliance on fossil fuels destabilizes entire industries and the macroeconomy to how best to structure climate policies to facilitate a just and equitable transition. In launching these issue briefs, Roosevelt is not offering a new diagnosis of the problems, nor a full prescription for a path forward. Instead, together, these briefs demonstrate that all economic policy is climate policy, and that the neoliberal, market-driven economic policies of the last half-century are failed climate policies. Neoliberal economic policies have failed to control carbon emissions and have allowed the economy to continue to rely too heavily on inherently volatile, nonrenewable energy sources. 

New economic policies that seek to address the climate crisis must move away from a neoliberal stance and actively work to minimize corporate power while building public institutions that can help execute a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. These policies must include direct investment in clean energy industries and new regulations that restrict corporate power and shift pricing to reflect the true costs of fossil fuels—including damage from extreme weather events, impacts on public health, and disruptions to agriculture and ecosystems. Further, they must build up the power of workers and specifically labor unions, to create more stable industries.