A portfolio approach to fighting climate change

Economist Gary Yohe in the Daily Times (Pakistan): Fighting climate change can be a sound investment, even though neither mitigation nor adaptation alone will be enough to "solve" the problem. To make a real difference, especially in the near term, the world must combine mitigation and adaptation with increased research and development. The world has tried with little success to cut carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The enormous effort expended to bring the Protocol into force nonetheless indicates how much work will be required to produce the next treaty, due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December 2009. Campaigners will push for tough and far-reaching policies, but strong resistance will continue from countries concerned about their economic vitality.

The new negotiations will have one advantage over the earlier efforts, because governments now understand the need for a portfolio of adaptation, mitigation, and research efforts. New research that my colleagues and I undertook for the Copenhagen Consensus Centre in Denmark explores the effectiveness of different responses to this global challenge, but it strongly supports the portfolio approach for several reasons…

A view in Kyoto... the Ginkakuji Temple in a snowy day. 雪の日の銀閣寺, shot by Moja, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2