By Adriana Alarcón (Written for MakerZone)
In the last 6 years, there has been a trend among nations in which most of the political, social, and economic decisions revolve around the Paris Agenda on Climate Change, to make decisions to stop this phenomenon and thus ensure ecological security and human welfare. In this trend, the business world is not left out, especially in the case of Mexico, through the Green Finance Advisory Council (CCFV). The CCFV is a representative body of the Mexican financial sector, that wishes to promote the financing of projects and investment assets to generate positive environmental impacts. Investors have found in sustainable bonds a good business and a way to achieve sustainable development goals.
However, it is necessary to approach this method of investment as stated by the environmental historian and political economist in the Department of Sociology at Binghamton University, Jason W. Moore, in his essay: "The End of Cheap Nature or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about 'the' Environment and Love the Crisis of Capitalism". Modernity implies control, in this case, of space, of nature, capitalism from its earliest stages, has to some extent taken it upon itself to "enslave" nature. This is something so envisioned in the same system because the human being is seen as a creator, not as a destroyer, and the relationship with the environment is mainly related to profit, the value it has, under the ecology-world, not the interaction of coexistence.
Furthermore, it is interesting to see how consumerism has turned something "natural" into something exotic and even a luxury, caused by the increased demand for cheap nature, making the cost of production more expensive. And this explains why, for example, "organic" fruits and vegetables or gluten-free or unprocessed foods are products that acquire too high a value. And the same ecology-world system uses this to its advantage so that processed products are cheaper, such as transgenic foods, and so that people with less purchasing power continue to encourage this type of industry since they are unable to meet the demand with "natural" products.
A clear example of this is BMW, which has declared what a great business it is, as well as expecting a record in sustainable bonds. The company claims that through these tools it is possible to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, without harming economic performance. Therefore, it would be important to consider how capitalism or ecology-world, has benefited through consumption, awareness of the ecological crisis since it does not seek to reduce consumption but to consume responsibly, and capitalism is the only winner.
Sources:
Banco de México. (2021). Consejo Consultivo de Finanzas Verdes. Retrieved on: https://www.banxico.org.mx/sistema-financiero/ccfv-finanzas-verdes-banco-.html#:~:text=El%20Consejo%20Consultivo%20de%20Finanzas,que%20generen%20impactos%20ambientales%20positivos.
Forbes. Noguez, R. (2021). Las inversiones verdes sí son negocio, la BMV espera un récord en bonos sustentables. Retrieved on: https://www.forbes.com.mx/negocios-bmv-record-bonos-sustentables/
Moore, J. (2017). El fin de la naturaleza barata: o cómo aprendí a dejar de preocuparme por “el” medioambiente y amar la crisis del capitalismo. Retrieved on: https://jasonwmoore.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Moore-El-fin-de-la-naturaleza-barata-2016.pdf
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