Is the international economic system too chaotic to "work towards" carbon emission reduction I often get frustrated when I read calls to action on climate change.   It goes something like this: "Solutions are within reach - but we must act now!"  

If one assumes that the international economic system is chaotic and reactive,  and that no one is in charge, where is the theory to back up what seems to be a wild claim that "we can act".  Who are "we", and are markets even able to deal with information about the common good or the future.   

Suggestions for further reading on relevant theory would be appreciated.
There are already precedents that show the international capacity is there, technically, and economically to deliver the carbon reduction necessary, in time. And there are indications that the political will to do so is growing to sufficient levels, too.

Firstly, with the number of participating nations being 195 (the UNFCCC nation parties), that's about the right size to create a management group that prevents the destruction of the commons, despite the short-run market incentives being ones that would otherwise lead to such destruction: see the Nobel-winning work by Elinor Ostrom for lots of information on this - I highly recommend it, it's a very good read. This addresses the aspect of your question about whether the market can accommodate information about the common good and the future.

Secondly, there are already examples of individual nations putting primary legislation in place, and acting on it: the UK's Climate Change Act was the first such law in a major industrialised nation; other countries have done similar.

Thirdly, there are already examples of nations collaborating on global environmental problems successfully: the international action to reduce emissions of ozone-destroying chemicals, the Montreal Protocol, is working.

And fourthly, the COP21 Paris Agreement showed unanimity among the 195 nations plus the institution of the EU in the need to address this problem. Pause for a moment to consider the enormity of that. The Paris Agreement wasn't just approved by majority consensus, but unanimously by all 195 countries.

All of these things happened within the context of the international economic system. So it's certainly not a barrier.

And we know that the economic incentives to prevent catastrophic climate change far outweigh the costs of doing so, at any sane discount rate. However, there is a principal-agent problem, and decades of lag between cause and full outcome; therefore market mechanisms alone cannot be sufficient. But there are no pure market economies - it's all a blend of private and public agents - so that's only a hindrance, but not a barrier.