How to reconcile actual climate change mitigation with prosperity? A proposal

Rephrasing Keynes, we could say we are capable of irreversibly warming the planet because it does not pay a dividend. The aim of this article is to propose a novel policy to decouple the economic system from greenhouse gas emissions by legally redefining the way dividends are computed, thus changing corporations' main objective. The basic idea is to make the pursuit of self-interest by shareholders compatible with the common good, i.e. actual climate change mitigation. In order to distribute income to their shareholders, corporations should curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Such income should be proportional to the companies' achievements, providing a powerful incentive to change production and delivery schemes. Although it implies that the system would no longer revolve around the accumulation of profits, shareholders' income would also depend on economic prosperity and less unequal distribution of resources. Profits would have a secondary role to play, only to the extent of avoiding bankruptcy in the long run. This novel policy, that we propose to call “climatism”, as opposed to “capitalism”, could be a way to move towards a post-growth or wellbeing economy.