Challenging the Illusion of Green Capitalism: A Call for Structural Change

Technological innovations, particularly in AI, are often far from environmentally friendly. The training of large-scale AI models consumes vast amounts of energy, often sourced from carbon-intensive grids, and relies on a global infrastructure of extraction.

The digital economy, instead of being post-material, is hyper-material. The shift towards “green” capitalism frequently leads to the outsourcing of emissions, waste, and extractive harms to peripheral regions while maintaining a facade of sustainability in core economies.

Transition strategies towards a tech-driven green economy tend to expand the informal economy, especially in the Global South, reinforcing systems where workers lack labor protections, environmental regulations, and access to welfare.

Community Impact

Most green jobs today involve installation rather than manufacturing, with components produced in factories across Southeast Asia being assembled or installed in the Global North. This trend risks deepening the divide between secure, professional roles and precarious, unregulated contract jobs.

Similar to how BigTech mines data for profit, green industries also rely on processes of extraction and enclosure. The expansion of green technologies necessitates the opening of new mines, primarily in the Global South, leading to violent displacement, repression, and enclosure.

Both green industry advocates and political figures are targeting environmental protests and community campaigns across the Global North to ensure that ‘NIMBYs’ and ‘eco-terrorists’ cannot obstruct ‘green’ progress.

Technological Discipline

Despite the increasing rhetoric around green transformation, the global extractivist economy continues to expand. Clean energy infrastructure still relies on colonial supply chains, while carbon offsets displace Indigenous communities. The concept of a circular economy often masks the rising material throughput, further fueling the climate crisis.

Today’s green capitalism is intertwined with digital technology, promoting smart grids, AI-optimized agriculture, and behavioral nudges as efficient and sustainable tools. However, this vision comes with a growing reliance on surveillance and algorithmic governance.

A new form of capitalism is emerging, blending digital surveillance and financial speculation with coercive governance, known as the “authoritarian–financial complex.” Technologies like AI and biometrics are not only used to extract value from data but also to govern populations through automated monitoring and discipline.

Managing Disasters

Resistance and protest are increasingly seen as opportunities for profit by private security and fintech companies, often at the expense of crushing dissent. New digital technologies are being leveraged in anti-democratic ways, accelerating anti-protest and security industries, as well as automating disinformation.

These technologies are also being integrated into financial systems, excluding certain areas and demographics from access to finance and insurance. The automation of crucial services like welfare risks creating additional barriers for vulnerable communities, further distancing them from financial relief after disasters.

The Call for Transformation

As authoritarian populism and green capitalism threaten to exert control in different ways, grassroots movements worldwide are challenging the false solutions offered by elite-led transitions. From indigenous land defenders to climate debt resistance groups, these movements demand structural change and reject market-based emissions management.

Eco-socialism advocates for a deeper transformation, emphasizing collective ownership, democratic control, and a shift from extraction to care and from competition to solidarity. Sustainability, in this view, is not a market outcome but a political struggle for a just and livable world.

About the Authors

Dr. Nicholas Beuret is a lecturer at the University of Essex, focusing on the politics and political economy of climate change and the green transition. His upcoming book, “Or Something Worse: Why we need to disrupt the climate transition,” will be published by Verso in September 2025.

Professor Peter Bloom, a management professor at the University of Essex, critically examines the radical possibilities of technology in redefining contemporary work and society. He is also the co-director of the Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities, and Resilience (COVER).