The World Is Not Going To Meet The Necessary Emission Reductions — Even A Green New Deal Won’t Make A Difference

The Developing World Is Increasing Emissions At Such A Rate That Any Emission Reduction By The Developed World Will Be Offset — It’s Time For A Plan B

Writer H. L. Mencken once said, “… there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” For climate change that well-known but wrong idea is that the world can meaningfully reduce emissions by switching from fossil fuels to renewables in the required timeframe. The Green New Deal is the epitome of this approach. It is an ambitious plan which proposes to spend trillions of dollars to convert our economy to renewables and have the country reach net zero emissions by 2030. It sounds good — it feels good — but if you look at the numbers and the reality of the global situation, it’s simply the wrong approach. And it’s not just that the Green New Deal rejects some more cost effective ways to transition to zero emissions like carbon taxes — the very idea that climate change can be averted by switching to renewables is sadly misguided.

Even if we imagined that the political will could be found in both the United States and the European Union to spend trillions on a Green New Deal, and we made the somewhat generous assumption that these plans would be successful in achieving net zero emissions by 2030, it would really…