Review by Ellie Thorson
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), without immediate emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C will be impossible (IPCC, 2022).
This urgent deadline highlights the importance of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate – a powerful and timely book for anyone concerned with the climate crisis. Klein, a Canadian author, journalist, and activist, has significantly influenced political and economic discourse surrounding climate change and environmental degradation (Dobson, 2025).
Published in 2014, This Changes Everything frames the climate crisis as deeply intertwined with the political economy of neoliberal capitalism.
This review critically assesses the relevance of This Changes Everything for contemporary business management, focusing particularly on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and multi-stakeholder initiatives. Its insights are especially relevant for business leaders, corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers, policymakers, and others navigating the complexities of climate accountability. By
directly challenging theories of shareholder primacy, business-led environmentalism, and the legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives, Klein’s This Changes Everything offers critical perspectives for organizations grappling with the climate crisis.
Klein’s Approach
Klein’s central claim is that our current capitalist framework—specifically neoliberal policies characterized by deregulation, austerity, privatization, and an unrelenting pursuit of economic growth—poses a fundamental barrier to effective climate action (Klein, 2014, p. 34). With a critical perspective on these systems and a call for transformative change, This Changes Everything blends anecdotal narration with evidence-backed analysis. Drawing heavily on her experiences as a Canadian activist and journalist, Klein grounds her arguments in a specific regional context, which some may argue limits their scope and applicability. Despite addressing complex issues, Klein’s writing is clear and accessible, making the book comprehensible even to readers without prior knowledge. Her tone is argumentative, insistent, and deeply engaged.
The book is divided into three parts, starting with “Bad Timing,” in which Klein argues that as climate change began gaining political traction in the late 1980s, neoliberalism triumphed across much of the Western world. This shift empowered market fundamentalism, which not only accelerated greenhouse gas emissions but also weakened regulatory mechanisms. Klein calls for direct challenges to our “reigning economic paradigm (deregulated capitalism combined with public austerity)” (p. 63), asserting that market-based climate solutions are inherently inadequate within this framework.
Challenging Shareholder Primacy
Klein’s central critique of neoliberal capitalism directly challenges the foundational principles of shareholder primacy. Milton Friedman, a proponent of shareholder primacy, famously stated, “the responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (1970, p. 173). Under neoliberal frameworks, Friedman (1970) asserts that shareholders are the “owners of the business, whereby the only responsibility is to fulfill shareholders’
desire to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of society” (p. 173). While often justified as a disciplinary device for efficient resource allocation (Sikka & Stittle, 2019), Klein disrupts these notions by demonstrating how such a narrow focus on profit undermines effective climate action. For instance, Klein highlights how fossil fuel companies’ pursuit of high-risk carbon deposits is considered
their “fiduciary responsibility to shareholders,” despite the fact that this responsibility “virtually guarantees that the planet will cook” (p. 148).
Klein urges organizations to critically reevaluate the corporate agenda embedded in for profit business models, explicitly rejecting shareholder primacy in favour of a reimagined stakeholder framework—one that centres marginalized and frontline communities, as well as public-interest governance structures, in climate action. This perspective echoes Orts’ (2024) normative prescription that “conceptions of business purposes—both externally imposed and internally determined—should evolve to include environmental values and duties, as well as those of business participants or even humanity taken as a collective whole” (p. 439). Both Klein and Orts challenge traditional notions of corporate purpose, advocating for a broader ethical responsibility that transcends profit maximization and incorporates ecological and social considerations.
Corporate-Led Environmentalism: Illusions of Responsibility
Klein furthers her critique in the second section of her book, Magical Thinking, by scrutinizing corporate-led environmentalism, characterized by popular contemporary management approaches such as public purpose corporations (PPCs) and voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Grounded in legal commitments, PPCs aim to address broader environmental and social concerns alongside traditional profitmaking motives, striving for a model of “profit-with-purpose” (Levillain & Segrestin, 2019, p. 637). Similarly, Carroll’s (1991) CSR framework emphasizes that businesses should embrace all four components of the “pyramid”: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities (p. 39).
Klein highlights how corporations cultivate an illusion of responsibility, “doing everything in their power to furiously protect that way of life,” by greenwashing—promoting initiatives that seem eco-friendly, yet have minimal impact when compared to their core, environmentally harmful operations (p. 198). In the chapter No Messiahs, Klein discusses Richard Branson’s “Gaia Capitalism,” a model that blends profit with
environmental stewardship, and his 2006 $3 billion pledge to develop biofuels and other technological solutions to combat the climate crisis (p. 231).
Initially praised by Bill Clinton and The New Yorker, Branson ultimately fell short of his climate pledge, citing losses in his transportation sector. Simultaneously, however, he expanded his businesses by launching Virgin America—its most ambitious venture in years—which contributed to a 40% increase in Virgin’s airline emissions in the years following the pledge (p. 243). Klein contends that “the temptation to profit from
practices worsening the crisis proved too great to resist” (p. 251), concisely demonstrating how corporate-led environmentalism, like CSR initiatives and PPC frameworks, ultimately protects the capitalist system while delaying the climate imperative.
The Shortcomings of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives
While Klein praises Branson’s original idea of reinvesting transportation profits into a zero-carbon economy (p. 252), she reiterates that under current business models, such visions driven by “enlightened self-interest” remain a “fairytale” (p. 253). Klein asserts that meaningful climate action requires legislation involving increased regulation, higher tax rates, and royalty payments—measures long resisted by traditional business
models (p. 254). In this context, multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), often embedded in CSR and PPC frameworks, serve as voluntary alternatives that obscure deeper structural resistance to systemic reform.
MSIs, responding to market liberalization and intergovernmental failures, function as private regulation mechanisms for complex social and environmental challenges (Arenas, Albareda & Goodman, 2020). Issuing “soft law” standards, MSIs rely on voluntary compliance rather than enforceable sanctions from governments (Mena & Palazzo, 2012). Klein’s call for formal legislation and public sector expansion aligns with criticisms of MSIs’ effectiveness and legitimacy. Critics argue that MSIs are often “mere window dressing” (Mena & Palazzo, 2012, p. 529), functioning as greenwashing tools for corporations, addressing only the “low-hanging fruit” – the easiest and least costly behaviour changes (Haufler, 2003, p. 244). Klein illustrates how trends supporting
brands affiliated with MSIs reinforce “extrinsic” values, which are major psychological barriers to climate action (p. 212).
Operating within pre-existing power imbalances, MSIs create an illusion of “moral legitimacy” (Banerjee, 2017, p. 808), reinforcing power asymmetries against vulnerable stakeholders under the guise of collaboration. By preserving the status quo, MSIs fail to curb corporate power or address structural issues obstructing meaningful climate action (Gray, Purdy & Ansari, 2022).
Klein strengthens these arguments with examples, such as her critique of the carbon market, often embedded in or parallel to MSIs. She shows how offsetting schemes have led to land grabs and displacement in the Global South, despite being marketed as a “win-win” climate solution by corporations (p. 222). Klein highlights the irony that the communities being displaced are some of the most sustainable, low-carbon people on the planet (p. 223). This example underscores how voluntary mechanisms not only fail to address the root causes of the climate crisis but also perpetuate global inequalities, reinforcing her broader claim that market-based solutions obscure the structural changes needed. Mena and Palazzo (2012) also note the growing proliferation of MSIs, underscoring the urgency of Klein’s points for business leaders.
Hopeful Paths: Grassroots Movements
Through ample evidence provided in the first and second sections of the book, Klein exposes the fallacies of our current economic paradigms, effectively setting the stage for the third section, Starting Anyway, which adopts a more hopeful and anecdotal tone. Here, Klein frames the climate crisis as a catalyst for transformative social and economic change. She underscores the transformative potential of grassroots climate justice movements, particularly those led by Indigenous groups, frontline communities, and farmers, who embody a “perpetual partnership with the earth around us” (p. 384). These decentralized networks represent “interconnected pockets of resistance,” which Klein refers to as “Blockadia” (p. 295).
Shifting away from theoretical critique, Klein shares personal encounters with frontline activism and local victories. In the chapter The Right to Regenerate, she includes a deeply emotional narrative about her pregnancy journey, which brought the stakes of the climate crisis into sharp, personal focus. This chapter moves Klein’s arguments beyond data and politics, emphasizing the deeply human implications of environmental collapse and cultivating a sense of moral urgency about the kind of future we want to
build. While some readers may argue that this shift toward personal narrative softens the practical force of her earlier critiques, it ultimately makes the climate crisis more intimate and relatable, reinforcing Klein’s central message that it demands radical urgency and systemic transformation.
Conclusion: Confronting the Climate Imperative
At first glance, Klein’s central claim—that climate change represents “a battle between capitalism and the planet”—may seem radical, perhaps even unpalatable to organizational leaders and individuals whose livelihoods are deeply embedded in the very economic system she critiques. However, she presents her arguments in a style that is not only accessible and compelling but also grounded in meticulous research and powerful anecdotal evidence. This combination draws readers in, urging them to confront the boldness of her message and reflect on their own roles within the climate imperative. In conclusion, This Changes Everything is both timely and essential, urging organizational leaders and members alike to critically reflect on their role in the climate crisis.
