Depletion work: climate change and the mediation of stranded assets

Abstract

Abstract The relationship between economy and society increasingly takes financialized form. In this article, I examine two mediations of climate change which attempt to re/settle this financialized relationship: (a) stranded assets, a representation of value lost as the long-term lives of assets are interrupted; and (b) internal proxy pricing for carbon, a mechanism which allows firms to integrate a price for carbon into investment decision-making. I argue that internal proxy pricing allows investors to protect assets whose long-term value has been thrown into question by climate change. This suggests that discussions of financialization should be focused not only on the construction of financial value, but also on the ways in which value dissipates over time. These contending mediations also provoke questions about the relationship between ‘risk’ and ‘uncertainty’ in ways that suggest a fundamental reordering of what it means to confront an unknowable future in a moment of financialized calculation.