Nicholas Beuret is a lecturer in environmental politics and economic geography at the University of Essex and the author of Or Something Worse: Why We Need to Disrupt the Climate Transition.
Two of Britain’s most powerful unions oppose soft-left MP Ed Miliband’s bid to become chancellor. They fear the green transition could cost jobs in the oil industry, one of the few sectors where workers have consistently secured above-inflation pay raises.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s dying government is planning to nationalize British Steel, but things are not quite what they seem. His proposals may lead to thousands of job losses and cash handouts to corporations.
Governments and tech moguls have bet hundreds of billions on artificial intelligence. If the technology does what it promises, we will have to radically rethink how the global economy functions.
The UN is putting refugees to work in poorly paid green jobs to generate carbon credits for billion-dollar firms. It’s one of the most cynical instances of a corporate greenwashing agenda that has done little to address climate change.
A decade ago, Western governments pitched the green transition as a solution to reindustrialization and economic decline. The failure of these policies to produce well-paying jobs has triggered a right-wing backlash in both the UK and the US.