The Political Economy of the "Great Transition": Material Throughput, Ecological Limits, and the Decommodification of the Post-Carbon Social Order

Abstract

The mid-2020s have confirmed that the climate crisis is not merely a consequence of atmospheric carbon accumulation but a systemic crisis of the capitalist mode of production itself. This expansive paper critiques the prevailing "Green Growth" consensus, which suggests that technological innovation and market-led decarbonization can decouple economic expansion from material destruction. We argue that this framework is a dangerous delusion, failing to account for the fundamental thermodynamic and material limits of a closed planetary system. By analyzing a decade of global mineral extraction trends, energy consumption patterns, and industrial output metrics, we demonstrate that the transition to renewable infrastructure is generating an unprecedented escalation in resource throughput, accelerating the metabolic rift rather than closing it. The study provides a radical deconstruction of the political economy of the "Green Transition," detailing how it functions as a mechanism for the massive expropriation of the Global South’s remaining resource reserves. We examine the rise of "green extractivism," where renewable energy projects in the periphery are utilized to fuel the high-consumption lifestyles of the core. Furthermore, the paper critiques the financialization of ecological mitigation, exposing how carbon markets, ESG metrics, and private equity investments in transition infrastructure function as mechanisms of rent-seeking that prioritize short-term profit over long-term planetary survival. We reject the technocratic paradigm of mere energy substitution, arguing instead for a structural transition toward a post-carbon political economy rooted in degrowth, the absolute decommodification of foundational social services, and the radical democratization of resource governance. In conclusion, we outline a macroeconomic framework for an equitable, low-energy future that prioritizes universal well-being over the imperatives of infinite capital accumulation.