The science is unequivocal: stabilizing climate change implies bringing net carbon emissions to zero by 2100 if we are to keep climate change anywhere near the 2°C warming that world leaders have agreed on as the limit. Decarbonizing Development: Three Steps to a Zero-Carbon Future looks at what it would take to decarbonize the world economy by 2100 in a way that is compatible with countries’ broader development goals. The book argues that all countries must:
(i) Plan ahead with an eye on the end-goal so as to enact the right policy mix that will allow them to take advantage of options that offer immediate local co-benefits while taking actions that will allow them to reach the long term objective and avoid locking in carbon-intensive patterns and higher future expense.
(ii) Go beyond prices with a policy package that triggers changes in investment patterns, technologies, and behaviors. Getting prices right - including pricing carbon and removing fossil fuel subsidies - is essential but these measures need to be complemented (and substituted where they are inefficient or not effective) with policy packages that help establish the right incentives and behaviors to address market failures and bias.
(iii) Mind the political economy and smooth the transition for those who stand to be most affected. The success of efforts to stabilize climate change will be largely determined by the ability of accompanying policies to ensure that the decarbonization of the economy contributes to economic development and the sustainable eradication of poverty.