The Hard Choices In The Climate Crisis

Even the greenest among us have not yet confronted the hard choices of climate change; The political efforts to achieve the goal of limiting the increase in global temperatures must heat up as fast as scientists tell us the planet is

Kenneth Rogoff, November 2, 2021 (MarketWatch)

“…[Despite the potential of green energy sources, the] hard fact is that fossil fuels still account for 80% of global energy, as they did when governments signed the Paris climate agreement to much fanfare at COP21 six years ago…Achieving “net-zero” CO emissions by 2050, by which time the world may have 2 billion more people than it does now, requires some hard choices…[The International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook] strikes an optimistic note by placing greater emphasis on what can be done to limit global warming…

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But at the same time, “keeping the door to 1.5°C open” seems to involve so many moving parts, innovations, adaptations, and, yes, sacrifices, that it is hard to see how it will work without the global carbon price most economists regard as necessary…[A] carbon tax remains political anathema in the United States…[The European Union Emissions Trading System (a cap-and-trade alternative to a carbon tax), has made more progress on carbon pricing. Even so, the scheme currently covers only about 50% of the EU’s greenhouse-gas emissions and gives many allowances for free…

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…[Even with a global carbon tax,] the world would still need a mechanism for transferring resources and know-how to developing economies to prevent them from becoming the major emitters of the future…Buy-in from developing countries is essential. Coal, which accounts for 30% of global CO2 emissions, is cheap and plentiful in countries such as India and China…[Streamlined permitting of wind and solar, existing and new nuclear options, and natural gas as a transitional resource must be considered because “net-zero” CO2 emissions by 2050] requires some hard choices…” click here for more

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