Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
26
OBSTACLES TO CLIMATE-
CHANGE POLICIES
The science and economics of global warming are clear. Unless forceful
measures are taken, the planet will continue to warm. The result will
be increasingly severe damage to the natural world and to vulnerable
parts of human systems. Policies to slow climate change are econom-
ically simple if politically diffi cult. They involve raising the price of CO
2
and other greenhouse gases and harmonizing the price across coun-
tries.
How much progress have we made in implementing an effective
policy? If we use carbon prices as a metric, very little. I suggested that
a price of $25 per ton of CO
2
would be necessary to limit climate change
to 2
1
⁄
2
°C. Actual carbon prices at a global level are today a miniscule
the community of nations has taken only the tiniest of steps to slow
warming.
Why has the progress been so slow? David Victor, a pioneering
political scientist at the University of California in San Diego, has
written about how global warming policies have become caught in
a special kind of gridlock in which politics, economics, myopia, and
analyzes some of the obstacles on the road to sensible global warming
policies.
