{"id":38453,"date":"2025-12-23T17:46:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=38453"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:48:18","slug":"the-trap-of-immediate-profit-like-ecological-myopia-destroys-the-long-term-value-of-companies-and-the-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/12\/23\/the-trap-of-immediate-profit-like-ecological-myopia-destroys-the-long-term-value-of-companies-and-the-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201e"The Instant Profit Trap: How Ecological Myopia is Destroying Long-Term Corporate Value and the Climate"\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the current global environment, it is becoming increasingly clear that the biggest obstacle to effective climate action is not a lack of technology, but ecological myopia<\/strong>. This phenomenon, defined as constantly The focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term value and sustainability creates a dangerous blind spot in the decision-making processes of both governments and businesses.<\/p>\n

Economic horizon: 2 versus 15 years<\/h5>\n

While the scientific evidence of the accelerating climate crisis is undeniable \u2013 2024 was the warmest year on record, with a global temperature increase of 1.6\u00b0C \u2013 there is a noticeable cooling of enthusiasm for net zero in political manifestos and corporate boards.<\/p>\n

The main driver of this myopia is pressure for immediate financial return<\/strong>. Many companies today prefer projects with a return on investment (ROI) of 2 to 3 years. However, true decarbonization and sustainable infrastructure (such as renewables or circular design) typically require an investment horizon of 7 to 15 years<\/strong>. This mismatch causes strategic environmental projects to be shelved in favor of \u201ebusiness continuity\u201c under the pressure of economic volatility and inflation.<\/p>\n

The tragedy of the commune and motivated reasoning<\/h5>\n

This problem has deep roots in a concept known as tragedy of the commune<\/strong>. When individuals or firms maximize their personal benefit by exploiting a common limited resource, it ultimately leads to its depletion and loss for all. The rational pursuit of individual gain thus becomes a collective tragedy.<\/p>\n

Added to this systemic flaw are psychological barriers such as motivated thinking<\/strong>. If information about climate change is perceived as too threatening or catastrophic, voters and decision-makers tend to ignore it to avoid stress. This attitude encourages politicians to be inactive because they are afraid of proposing measures that voters with a short-term thinking horizon would perceive as painful.<\/p>\n

Intergenerational injustice<\/h5>\n

The blind spot of myopia is most pronounced in distribution of costs between generations<\/strong>. Current economic optimization models (like DICE) often balance today's costs of climate mitigation against future damages, resulting in future generations bearing disproportionately higher costs relative to their GDP.<\/p>\n

Research suggests that in classical models there is approximately 70-year time shift<\/strong> between investment in reducing emissions and its real impact on reducing damage. This means that today's generation benefits from postponing action, while future generations "pay the bill" for our inaction.<\/p>\n

The Way Out: Reframe Strategies<\/h5>\n

Overcoming ecological myopia requires a fundamental change in approach:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Investment criteria must evolve:<\/strong> Companies should move from a pure financial ROI to an approach total value return<\/strong>, which includes avoided carbon costs, resilience benefits and brand equity.<\/li>\n
  • Building trust in institutions:<\/strong> Trust that the government is implementing optimal measures acts as a coordination tool that reduces the tendency to deny the facts.<\/li>\n
  • Nature as the basis of strategy:<\/strong> Sustainability should not be seen as an \u201eextra cost\u201c, but as a condition for survival. Companies that fail in transition risk not only reputational damage, but also the emergence of stranded assets<\/strong> and disruption of supply chains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    In reality, companies and governments cannot afford not to finance sustainability; in fact, they cannot afford to be inactive.<\/strong> Shortsightedness only makes the future more expensive and challenging for both business and society. JRi<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    V s\u00fa\u010dasnom glob\u00e1lnom prostred\u00ed sa \u010doraz jasnej\u0161ie ukazuje, \u017ee najv\u00e4\u010d\u0161ou prek\u00e1\u017ekou efekt\u00edvnych klimatick\u00fdch opatren\u00ed nie je nedostatok technol\u00f3gi\u00ed, ale ekologick\u00e1 kr\u00e1tkozrakos\u0165. Tento fenom\u00e9n, definovan\u00fd ako neust\u00e1le<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klimaticka-zmena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38457,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38453\/revisions\/38457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}