Fix The Climate: Researching Green Energy Perspective, Nemet

Perspective Paper

Professor Gregory Nemet finds that the Assessment Paper clearly establishes the inexorable growth in demand for energy services over the current century, the magnitude of the technological revolution required to address climate change, and the inability, for various reasons, of on the shelf technologies to adequately fulfill the required technological change. This PerspectivePaper generally agrees with their conclusion that comparing a Technology-Led Policy to "Brute Force Mitigation" produces benefit cost ratios well above one. It considers and elaborates on points that are central to this calculation, including the point that a carbon price signal is insufficient to induce the technology development investments required to limit global temperature increase, and that the technology-led policy will shift the bulk of technological decision-making from the private sector to the public sector.