Pitches wanted (Green Capitalism) | $100-$200 per article

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: NACLA REPORT

Deadline: 3 February 2025

Julianne Chandler, Managing Editor of NACLA Report, is looking for pitches:

NACLA is currently accepting proposals for our Fall 2025 issue on Green Capitalism in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November. Send us your pitches by February 3, 2025.

CALL FOR PITCHES

Green capitalism is as much of a threat to the planet today as traditional fossil capitalism. One of the reasons for this is the friendly relations between green and fossil capital, which co-exist freely in the market, hindering true transition efforts. Very often, green and fossil capital are one and the same, especially when we examine the diversification of energy portfolios by fossil fuel companies choosing to paint themselves green with investments in renewables such as solar or green hydrogen, which can also conveniently be used in oil refinery operations. The more green capitalism advances in its pursuit of profit through and at the expense of nature, the farther away we are from the prospects of a global just transition that can eliminate emissions at their source and prevent environmental destruction while building the conditions for a sustainable and socially prosperous society. In the green capitalist paradigm, environmentalism is not an obstacle, but something to be co-opted in order to expand markets.

Multilateral institutions and governments pursuing a climate and environmental agenda have normalized green capitalism, so that investments in infrastructure, new legislation, and global commitments align with profit and growth. Latin American developmentalism has gone green: the investor-state is paving the way for corporations to grab strategic resources and shape industrial policy, hoping to reconcile their thirst for resources with emissions reductions. In the meantime, the United States and Canada continue to push for cheap commodities while the climate agenda in the Global North also faces serious setbacks.

The Fall 2025 issue of the NACLA Report, guest edited by Sabrina Fernandes (Alameda Institute) and Breno Bringel (IESP-UERJ & Universidad Complutense de Madrid), will explore these themes. For this issue, we are looking for pieces that address urgent considerations surrounding Green Capitalism in the Americas in the lead-up to COP30 in Belem, Brazil in November. Proposals should dive into the universe of false solutions in the Americas, exploring North-South, South-South, and domestic dynamics. The volume will provide context to combat traps by green capitalism that further the commodification of life and resources through the continuous dispossession of communities and territories. Our goal is to help to equip activists and scholars in identifying false solutions in order to propose truly just transition approaches that fight the climate and ecological crises while improving socioeconomic justice and equity in the region.

We’re interested in pieces addressing topics including, but not limited to:

• Profit interests in the bioeconomy

• Debt for nature/climate and loss of sovereignty

• Critique of investor state approaches and mega project perspectives (green developmentalism)

• “Greening” agribusiness

• Bad energy jobs: privatization, energy as a commodity

• Fossil capital trying to “green” itself - company's expansions into green turf

• Electric cars and the maintenance of excluding mobility models

• The environmental racism of wind and solar expansion

• The advancement of carbon markets

• Impacts and dynamics of the “Decarbonization Consensus”

• Geopolitics of ecosocial transitions and inter-imperial rivalry

• Strategic minerals and green colonialism

• A critique of oil expansion justified as the basis to “finance the transition”

• Green investments at the expanse of territories (Indigenous, campesino, etc)

• South/South cooperation or North/South agreements in the environmental/climate agenda that create more debt and/or perpetuate the commodity system

• Discrepancies between states’ bolder climate agendas at the UN and weak environmental approaches domestically

• Expansion of green sacrifice zones

• False solutions in general

• Case studies of communities pushing against renewable energy megaprojects and proposing more just approaches

• Black and Indigenous critiques of green investment epistemologies

• The ubiquity of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in painting corporations and stock markets green

• Spurious partnerships between the state and corporations in the environmental agenda

• Ecocide connected to green investments

• How degrowth approaches and post-extractivism perspectives help to denounce false solutions

• Canadian/U.S. interests in mining and resource privatization in Latin America

• How private energy utilities create energy poverty and prevent transition (case studies welcome, for example, Puerto Rico)

• States being sued at multilateral arbitration courts for kicking mining companies out of the country

• Co-existence of fossil capital and green capital in the United States (i.e.: Biden - Trump continuities and breaks?)

For articles, we are interested in pieces that examine specific, narrowly defined topics and are written in a lively, accessible manner. We give preference to articles that are based on original research and interviews. We also welcome artistic and creative proposals and are interested in working with artists to showcase their work in hybrid print and digital formats.

Please send a brief pitch (250 words) outlining the thrust and tone of your proposed piece and why you are well positioned to write it by FEBRUARY 3 to managing editor Julianne Chandler at jchandler@nacla.org. We will respond to pitches by mid-February. Drafts of accepted articles (2,500-3,500 words) will be due on May 7, 2025.

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CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

• Questions/submissions: jchandler@nacla.org

• Website: https://nacla.org/nacla-report-americas

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: NACLA Report on the Americas is a quarterly magazine published by the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). It covers political, social, and economic issues in Latin America and examines the region’s relationship with the United States. The publication provides analysis and reporting on topics such as social movements, environmental justice, and human rights, with a focus on amplifying perspectives often overlooked in mainstream media. More information here.

• Read through a selection of recent articles/stories on its website.

• Review the submission guidelines here. Note that these are the publication's general guidelines to help you refine your pitch. You must still follow the editor's specific instructions above.

• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.

• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.

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