Aidan Regan: The challenge of climate change is political

Carbon taxes won’t cut it, we need deep structural changes at the heart of climate capitalism if we are to avert the looming disaster

A woman cries as wildfires burn on the Greek island of Evia: to sustain habitable life on the planet, we need radical structural change of our entire socio-economic system. Picture: Bloomberg

The optimist in me thinks that the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has finally woken up policymakers and governments on what needs to be done to tackle the climate emergency.

If we are to reach net zero emissions by 2050, stabilise global warming to below 1.5 degrees and sustain habitable life on the planet, we need nothing short of radical structural change of our entire socio-economic system.

But when ...