We need to act five times faster to avoid dangerous climate change. As Greenland melts, Australia burns, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, we think we know who the villains are: oil companies, consumerism, weak political leaders. But what if the real blocks to progress are the ideas and institutions that are supposed to be helping us? Five Times Faster is an inside story from Simon Sharpe, who has spent ten years at the forefront of climate change policy and diplomacy. In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong battles, and economics has been fighting for the other side. This provocative and engaging book sets out how we should rethink our strategies and reorganise our efforts in the fields of science, economics, and diplomacy, so that we can act fast enough to stay safe.
ISBN-13: 9781009326490
Media Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 04-06-2023
Pages: 344
Product Dimensions: 6.22(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.83(d)
Simon Sharpe is Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute. He designed and led flagship international campaigns of the UK's Presidency of the UN climate change talks (COP 26) in 2020–2021; worked as the head of private office to a minister of energy and climate change in the UK Government; and has served on diplomatic postings in China and India. He has published influential academic papers and created groundbreaking international initiatives in climate change risk assessment, economics, policy, and diplomacy.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; Part I. Science: 2. Looking up at the dam; 3. Knowing the least about what matters most; 4. Telling the boiling frog what he needs to know; 5. Runaway tipping points of no return; 6. The meaning of conservative; 7. More than science; 8. Tell the truth; Part II. Economics: 9. Worse than useless; 10. The allocation of scarce resources; 11. The configuration of abundance; 12. Not just fixing the foundations; 13. Investing with our eyes open; 14. Regulating for a free lunch; 15. Stuck in first gear; 16. Runaway tipping points of no return, revisited; 17. Revolutionary; Part III. Diplomacy: 18. A foreseeable failure; 19. The greatest public relations gamble in history; 20. System change, not climate change; 21. Better late than never; 22. From coal to clean power; 23. From oil to electric vehicles; 24. From deforestation to sustainable development; 25. The Breakthrough Agenda; 26. Tipping cascades; 27. Epilogue.
