A new LSE blog post argues that the main obstacle to climate action is not technical or economic feasibility but political viability. The authors critique a recent degrowth roadmap signed by prominent economists, saying it ignores how democratic systems actually work. Voters punish stagnation, welfare states depend on expanding output, and bond markets price debt on growth expectations. The piece points to the gilets jaunes revolt in France as a real world example of what happens when climate policy is perceived as material contraction without compensation. The post does not defend the status quo. It agrees that carbon inequality is real and that absolute decoupling has not been achieved at the required speed. But it argues that degrowth advocates have not built an electoral coalition or explained how their plan would survive democratic competition. For anyone working on carbon markets or climate policy, this is a useful reminder that technical feasibility is only half the equation. The other half is whether voters will accept the distribution of costs and benefits that any policy creates.
