Employing a Broader Policy Toolkit to Mitigate Climate Change Risks

摘要

For three decades, advocates for climate change policy have simultaneously emphasized die urgent need to take ambitious actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while providing false reassurances of the feasibility of doing so. This policy prescription has relied almost exclusively on a single tool: reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and otlier GHGs. We are discovering, however, that this exclusive approach is not sufficient to combat climate changes deadly effects. Furthermore, mitigation of GHG emissions has a poor track record. Atmospheric concentrations are up by more than 40 percent above baseline, and since mitigation efforts began around 1990 global CO_2 emissions have increased 60 percent and temperatures have increased at an accelerating rate. The coordinated efforts among nations of the world have fallen way short.