ABSTRACT
The Chinese word for crisis (weiji) is made up from two sets of characters – danger (weixian) and opportunity (jihui). This is very apt in describing the situation we now face with global climate change. The dangers are well known – increasing temperatures, droughts, spreading marginality of arable land; ice-cap melting and rising sea levels threatening coastal cities, deltas and islands; reduced sources of fresh water; greater frequency and severity of major storms; extended range of diseases and many others. Clearly, we cannot continue in the old ways if the human race is to have a future. To date, we have perhaps placed too much emphasis on the dangers. In this chapter I suggest that the coincidence of two major crises – global climate change and the collapse of the international fi nancial system – necessitates a major restructuring of the global economy. This is increasingly seen as unavoidable in both government and business circles. We need a new economy to overcome both crises. Tackling climate change is becoming increasingly urgent while at the same time the fi nancial crisis is undermining at least some of the resistance to major changes in the economy.
