Are financial markets destroying climate ambition?

Click here to watch the video recording of this interview**.**  In her latest book, Ann Pettifor argues that we are not governed by politicians or diplomats, but “by wealthy and powerful players in markets based in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the City of London.” These players, she says, largely either ignore the threat of climate breakdown, or see it as a struggle for resource control. The “unregulated actions of private actors and institutions in global markets have led to the increasingly rapid breakdown of the world’s climate and ecosystem.” In a special episode of The Land and Climate Podcast, recorded live in front of an audience as part of London Climate Action Week, Bertie and Ann discuss the influence financial markets exert over climate policy, and strategies to reassert democratic control. Ann Pettifor is a political economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, successfully campaigning to cancel approximately $100 billion in debt owed by poor countries, and for co-authoring and advocating the Green New Deal.  In January 2026, Verso published her latest book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet*.* Buy a copy from Verso's website before 31st July and recieve 30% off with the following discount code: CLIMATEREVIEW30  **Further reading:**  - Ann's Substack, System Change*.* - The Case for the Green New Deal, 2019 - The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of Bankers*,* 2018 Send us Fan Mail Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org