The Carbon Crunch
How We're Getting Climate Change Wrong—and How to Fix It
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
An economist’s take on “why the world’s efforts to curb the carbon dioxide emissions behind global warming have gone so wrong, and how it can do better” (Financial Times).
Despite commitments to renewable energy and two decades of international negotiations, global emissions continue to rise. Coal, the most damaging of all fossil fuels, has actually risen from 25% to almost 30% of world energy use. And while European countries congratulate themselves on reducing emissions, they’ve increased their carbon imports from China and other developing nations, who continue to expand their coal use. As standards of living improve in developing countries, coal use can only increase as well—and global temperatures along with it.
Written by an Oxford economist who specializes in environmental issues, this book goes beyond pieties and pipe dreams to address the practical realities that are preventing us from making progress on this crucial issue—and what we can do differently before it’s too late.
“Should be compulsory reading for the entire political class as well as the bureaucratic elite and the commentariat.”—New Statesman
“An optimistically levelheaded book about actually dealing with global warming.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A powerful and heartfelt plea for hard-nosed realism.”—New Scientist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Helm's credentials couldn't be more impressive and include service as special adviser to the European energy commissioner and as chair of the advisory group on the EU 2050 Energy Roadmap. The book's introduction could hardly be more saddening and frustrating. As Helm writes: "despite innumerable conferences, summits, proclamations, agreements and policy interventions, so far nothing much has been achieved, and indeed some of the interventions may have made things worse." Against this backdrop, which Helm details in accessible prose, he pragmatically concludes that fixing climate change requires that consumers be "willing to vote for politicians who will force them to pay" the costs of a transformed energy policy. Such candor is rare, and if that's the prerequisite to stave off potentially catastrophic global temperature increases, hope must triumph over experience. Helm superbly articulates why some of the alternate energy sources touted as solutions (such as wind power) aren't cost efficient, and how countries claim to have reduced harmful carbon emissions only by increasing carbon imports that don't add up to a net reduction. This intelligent though depressing tome should inform future debates.
