Free-market environmentalism, which advocates private-property rights and market processes to promote environmental goals, is unlikely to make political progress unless its arguments are recast to address communitarian environmentalists on their own terms. F. A. Hayek’s insights about decentralized knowledge, spontaneous order, and the systemic nature of environmental problems provide an immensely helpful framework for this task.

Mark Pennington is Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy at King's College London.
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