The financialisation of nature as crisis strategy

Abstract

The financialisation of nature has been intensified during the current multiple crisis. It has gained importance given an ongoing over-accumulation, problems with the enhanced reproduction of capital, and the problems resulting from the financialisation of other sectors (such as housing). This article aims to contribute to the debate on the financialisation of nature from the perspective of political ecology and hegemony theory. We argue that the financialisation of nature (a) is part of a class strategy which attempts to overcome the current crisis in the sense of a passive revolution; (b) is politically mediated in a process in which the internationalised state plays an important role; and (c) is based on the imperial mode of living of the Global North, and thus shapes societal nature relations. The financial-isation and commodification of nature is part of an emerging hegemonic project which we call Green Capitalism. The social and ecological costs of such a project are high, as it is linked to massive dispossession, land-use conflicts, and further ecological degradation.