The Role of Government in Climate Change Mitigation

Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas
From The Hill:

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday said he believed the private sector was more likely to find solutions to climate change than government.

“I was convinced, and I remain convinced, no government is going to solve this problem,” Kerry said in remarks at the Institute of International Finance’s 2021 Washington Policy Summit.

“The solution is going to come from the private sector, and what government needs to do is create the framework within which the private sector can do what it does best, which is allocate capital and innovate and begin to take the framework that’s been created. … We need to go after this as if we’re really at war.”

Well, let’s be real.  Consumers have to demand low-carbon energy and eat less meat.  The private sector needs to build products whose LCAs (lifecycle analyses) are eco-friendlier.  And government needs to use taxation and subsidies to make all this more attractive.  One can’t work without the other two.

The problem here in the U.S. is that our Congress is essentially owned by corporate entities, including, infamously, the fossil fuel industry.  We’re still subsidizing oil exploration, a 100-year-old industry, that is the wealthiest in human history.  Maybe that’s what Kerry meant by “no government is going to solve this problem.”