Out of 1,500 global climate policies, only 63 have really worked. That’s where green spin has got us • Grand schemes, many backed by governments, masquerade as positive action on the environment. They should be disowned

3 comments

1. I like the conclusion of the article. We now know that, based on what we’ve done, there’re 63 “floor” policies that can and must be pushed. It’s not experimental, it’s proven and it’s an important foundation from which build upon.

2. I find this article infuriating. It lists a bunch of highly experimental technologies like carbon capture, algae oil, green aviation fuel.. and then whines that only a subset of them have paid off.

   Like, how do you expect the rapid development of experimental solutions to work? Does the author think that we can just read some tea leaves and figure out which new tech to fund without ever having conducted experiments? This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. That means we fund everything and prune the ones that don’t pay off.

   Many of these ideas could still work, and if any one of them did, they’d have a dramatic positive impact. But it takes time, patience, and funding to re-invent global energy ffs. I vehomently disagree that we should just drop the risky stuff and go with the ‘safe’ stuff. There’s only so much that we can accomplish with the floor policies like gas tax. You can’t rely on a gas tax long-term without researching alternatives to gas! I wonder if 20 years ago the author would have had a beef with litheum ion battery research/investment..

3. Strangely glad to see these articles. We spent too much time pretending we’re making a difference while doing nothing.