What a devilishly wicked problem getting the world mobilised on climate action is. So devilish that I think we are at the mercy of an inverted pentagram of influence that holds everthing in tension rather than enabling all factions to pull together to create concerted climate action of the intensity required.

In the pentagram five forces are at work. Each of these forces has two fundamental characteristics – the extent of agency to address the climate emergency (if they wished to) and the appetite to address the climate emergency.

Every force influences the others….to some degree, hence the pentagram.

It’s hard to judge relative agency and appetite and they are not necessarily in a steady state. However, *in this depiction* we have the following:

Collectively, politicians have some appetite to address the climate emergency but this is kept in check by other forces, notably the fossil fuel industry (and car industry) that has much less appetite and wields a lots of influence directly and indirectly over politicians. As such the agency of politicians is more constrained than some assume.

The mainstream media have a lot if indirect agency through being able to influence public appetite, voting and consumption behaviour. However, as a result, their appetite to address climate change is influenced by other forces (of vested interest).

The fossil fuel industry has its eyes on profit and indeed on profit within reach in the shorter term. Notwithstanding being beholden to shareholders (who come from all five points of the pentagram in terms of the people concerned) it has considerable agency to address the climate emergency but vested interest is reflected in a low appetite to do so.

Collectively, the public have agency that could wield disruptive behaviour change andn response to the climate emergency and for this reason, vested interests of other forces lead to influence to temper public appetite that could unlock such agency.

The professionals (here assuming for the most part they accept the science and want to make change for the better) have perhaps the highest appetite to address climate change yet sadly have limited agency and influence.

What a mess! The question is – with the forces of the devil at work, is it going to be possible to turn everything green in time?

Wishing you all a happy #MetalFriday

#climateaction#decarbonisation#triplebottomline#climatecrisis#climateemergency#dontlookup

h/t Giulio Mattioli who has previously used the pentagram in relation to the challenges of system change.