Green markets

This chapter examines the role of green markets in the environmental political theory of the Anthropocene. The construction of ‘green markets’ has emerged as the central response of liberal political economy to the problem of governing global ecosystems, now dramatically impacted by the externalities of the market economy. This governance agenda seeks to internalise ecological externalities by assigning them clear property rights, thereby extending to the governance of the global environment the superior allocative efficiency of markets claimed by neoliberal economic theory. Key critiques and limitations of this project are explored, linked to the various ways in which environmental and ecosystem goods do not resemble ideal market commodities (including their non-fungibility, complexity, non-linearity, and incommensurability). Departing from these critiques, two major alternative institutional models for allocating resources in the Anthropocene emerge: state planning and decentralised economic democracy.