Governments have pursued decarbonization through a combination of subsidies for capital and compensation for people. Political scientists have identified the compensation of those who incur losses from climate policies as the the central challenge in building green coalitions and achieving a just transition. However, a decarbonization path aimed at limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius entails transformative change for virtually everyone. We argue that, under such conditions, a compensation-based approach reduces green backlash to pocketbook concerns; citizens to bundles of fixed preferences; and evaluation to policy-by-policy assessment. Proposing to move beyond compensating existing preferences, we contend that transformative statecraft reshapes preferences through political mobilization. From this perspective, a technocratic approach—focused on calculation and compensation—constitutes a binding constraint on green statecraft. We defend this mobilization-based approach against the objections of manipulation and deprivation of freedom and suggest that a democratic version of transformative statecraft is possible. [Read the draft paper]