A 20-year attempt to deal with global warming by capping emissions and putting a price on carbon (the so-called "cap and trade") has died again.
But while activists insist that means even more lobbying and 'awareness' (seriously, is anyone unaware of global warming by now?) Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger in The Atlantic note that is just dressing up old ideas in new clothing.
Instead of knee-capping industry, we need to focus on innovation.
Today's low-carbon technologies are simply too expensive and too difficult to scale; they do not yet represent a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Wind energy, the cheapest renewable technology, still costs 50 percent more than coal or gas, according to the US Energy Information Agency.
The "iron law of climate policy" is now firmly that no country is going to kill its economy to curb emissions, which means alternatives have to make economic sense, and the idea that"turning up the volume with dire warnings of climate apocalypse and civil-rights-style protests can overcome the basic technological and economic obstacles to action" has been put to pasture.
That means a technology-first policy finally has a chance. As they write "Better and cheaper energy technologies are a precondition for successful caps or carbon taxes, not a substitute."
