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This book argues that the world’s climate-policy leaders and expert advisors have been making fundamental mistakes leading to constant failures of climate change mitigation efforts. Here are summaries of some major mistakes that are likely to cause disastrous consequences:
Bad Baseline — Climate policymakers have been using the wrong mitigation baseline, focusing on annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions rather than on changes in the atmospheric GHG concentration.
Stocks and Flows — Most climate leaders do not understand the crucial difference between reducing annual GHG emissions and "reducing the increases" in the cumulative atmospheric GHG concentration.
Back-Loading — Conventional emissions-reduction programs, including economic incentive systems, will defer most GHG reductions until 2050 or thereafter, which is "too little, too late" to prevent many climate change disasters. This back-loading policy is especially misguided due to the persistence of CO2 discharges in the atmosphere.
Unequal Market Forces — Economic incentive programs presume that "putting a price on carbon" will lead to higher pollution costs and corresponding emissions reductions. Yet, "market forces" advocates seldom acknowledge the powerful competitive advantages possessed by the "dirty" fossil fuel industries drawing on their trillion-dollar wealth and strong political influence in many countries.
Negotiations Stalemate — Emissions-reduction programs normally impede rather than promote economic growth and increasing prosperity, the highest priorities of most developing countries. As a result, conventional emissions-reduction programs have reinforced the stalemate in international climate negotiations instead of helping reconcile the conflicting interests of developed and developing nations.
Half-Hearted Interim Measures — The adoption of weak initial or interim emissions-reduction measures will often be more harmful than helpful because they will divert essential funding, limited regulatory resources, and public attention away from more promising mitigation efforts.
GHG-Free Replacement Technologies —
Rather than rely on conventional GHG emissions-reduction programs, this book recommends a shift to a “decarbonization” strategy based on adopting GHG-free replacement technologies able to facilitate economic and social development without further degrading the climate. The only realistic way to cut heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere enough to limit climate change dangers is to replace fossil fuels and other major GHG sources as rapidly as feasible in as many contexts and regions as feasible with “clean” technologies, processes, and methods.
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