Prof. Aseem Prakash and colleague Prof. Nives Dolšak propose a five point plan for getting the climate policy discussion in the forefront again.
"COP26 in Glasgow and more recently, COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, underline decarbonization’s political challenges. It seems the world has given up the quest for limiting global temperature rise preferably to 1.5°C in relation to the pre-industrial levels. The 2016 Paris Agreement established the target of net zero emissions by 2050 and halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. However, the 2022 Emissions Gap Report notes that these emissions are still rising.
We identify five models with their theories of climate policy change:
Model 1: Climate Change is a Scientific Problem
Model 2: Climate Change is a Moral Problem
Model 3: Climate Change is an Economic Problem
Model 4: Climate Change is a Technological Problem
Model 5: Climate Change is a Political Problem
Climate policy needs to be jump started; it is not useful to pretend that all is well, because it is not."