The following is a guest essay.
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Stabilizing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere at a level that will fulfill the mandate of the UN Framework Concentration on Climate Change to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” will require drastic departures from business as usual. Here we introduce one attractive response to this challenge that may seem visionary or idealistic today but that could well become realistic once we reach a tipping point regarding climate change that opens a window of opportunity for embracing major changes.
No silver bullet exists capable of solving the complex and interdependent problems of climate change, sustainability, and economic development. A consensus is emerging, however, that solving these problems will require major changes in existing governance arrangements to eliminate or at least alleviate what the 2006 Stern Review (1) calls the “greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen” — the failure of the market to send proper signals about the real costs of using the atmosphere as a repository for greenhous... Read more
