Capitalism’s systemic barriers to environmental upgrading in global value chains

Abstract Within the global value chain (GVC) research and policy community, the profundity of the environmental crisis is increasingly recognized. In response, scholars advocate environmental upgrading (EnvU) to reduce GVCs’ deleterious environmental impacts. This article argues that the EnvU notion obscures GVCs’ systemically destructive effect upon the natural environment. It is rooted in methodological singularism (analytically focussing upon single chains or firms), eschews a rigorous conception of capitalist relations of production and growth, and does not recognize the specificity of capitalist GVC’s relation to, and destruction of, nature. In contrast, we provide the beginnings of an alternative conceptual framework for comprehending and analysing the environmental impacts of capitalist GVCs. We illustrate our argument through a discussion of the feed–meat value chain—as an indicative example pointing towards directions for future research.