Halting climate change requires research, development and diffusion
Making it more expensive to emit greenhouse gases would also help, writes Paul J Ferraro
Mitigating climate change is easy. We need only make it more expensive to emit greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, that would also make energy more expensive, and many people would prefer that governments make energy less expensive. Witness the protests started over a modest gas tax in France, a leader in international climate change negotiations. Rather than work against this incentive — and continue to be surprised at the glacial pace of progress against climate change — an international agreement should try to harness it. It’s time to abandon the effort to secure a global deal to lower emissions, and instead work towards an agreement to make sizeable investments in clean-energy technology. Incentives matter — a lot. Successful international agreements — including the Montreal Protocol, which phased out ozone-depleting substances, and the marine pollution convention Marpol 73/78, which lowered pollution from ships — have mainly required actions by just a few countries, the ones that ...
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