By David Gelles

Combating the climate crisis is the ultimate long-term challenge. Can society rapidly overhaul energy production, transportation, heavy industry, agriculture and more in order to prevent truly catastrophic global warming?

The jury is still out, and time is running short. And there are very real questions whether such a quest can succeed within the constraints of an economic system that is famously focused on short-term incentives.

The stock market, corporate governance and executive compensation all incentivize quarterly performance. As a result, it’s often hard for companies to walk away from products and services that are good for the bottom line in the short term but bad for global warming in the longer term, or to invest in low carbon technologies that may take years to pay off.

But increasingly, making money and bending the curve on planet warming emissions is not an either-or proposition. Akshat Rathi, a Bloomberg News climate reporter, writes in his new book Climate Capitalism that there is a growing body of evidence that suggests short-term profit incentives can deliver long-term change.

“Even in the economic system that exists, which has worsened climate change, there can be modifications made, and capitalism can tackle the climate problem while delivering profits,” he told me.

Such win-win thinking can often come off as Pollyannish. But Rathi backs up his argument with reported stories from around the globe, making the case that the very profit motive that got us into this mess can help get us out of it, too.