A colleague recently told me that they weren’t particularly concerned about climate change.
After all, they had purchased an electric vehicle, invested in green funds, and installed solar panels on their roof. It was a familiar conversation—one that, I suspect, many of us have internally, often without realising it, as part of an uncritical assumption that our personal choices and technological fixes are enough. This conversation touched a nerve, which inspired me to write this article for Law, Technology and Humans, where I criticise the alluring but ultimately dangerous belief that technology will save us.
In Tech Won’t Save Us, I criticise the techno-optimist narrative, which holds that we can solve the climate crisis using technological solutions such as electric vehicles and carbon capture without changing how we live or how our economic systems operate. This belief, while comforting, is not only misplaced, but it has become embedded in the structure of international environmental law.
My article examines how legal instruments and institutions, from the IPCC to the Paris Agreement, have long viewed technology as the primary tool for climate action. But, while innovation is important, we are making a critical mistake by believing it is sufficient. Electric vehicles (EVs) and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) are not perfect solutions. They may reduce emissions, but they do not address the underlying causes of environmental degradation: a global economy based on perpetual growth, overconsumption, and inequality.
This article was not easy to write. It required me to question some of my previous optimism. But I believe it is a necessary conversation—one that we must have not only in legal scholarship but also in public discourse. The climate crisis is not a technological issue with a technical solution. It represents a political, economic, and moral challenge. And unless we address it as such, we may find ourselves too far down the wrong path to turn around.
Article Link: http://lthj.qut.edu.au/article/view/3816
Henrique Marcos 