Moreno-Cruz Publishes Chapter in 'Towards a Workable and Effective Climate Regime'

Posted November 16, 2015

Juan Moreno-Cruz, Assistant Professor in the School of Economics, recently published a book chapter tilted "The Alternatives to Unconstrained Climate Change: Emission Reductions Versus Carbon and Solar Geoengineering."

Moreno-Cruz and co-author Dr. Scott Barrett of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University argue:

"Just as the failure to limit emissions has brought adaptation onto the agenda of climate negotiations, so we believe the time has come for negotiators to consider the roles that solar and carbon geoengineering can play in addressing climate change. If the 2°C goal were truly sacrosanct, then it seems unreasonable to ignore approaches that are capable of limiting temperature change directly or of limiting concentrations directly, especially as the IPCC's analysis suggests that even with a turnaround in the success of emission reduction efforts, overshooting the 2°C goal is very unlikely.  Should efforts to reduce emissions continue to fall short, the case for considering these alternative approaches will only increase over time. The decision to use, or not to use, carbon and solar geoenginnering will have consequences, and our view is that these consequences should be evaluated and the results of such analyses used to justify these decisions."

This chapter is part of the Vox eBook tilted "Toward a Workable and Effective Climate Regime," which argues that the world needs a climate change regime that is both workable and effective – ‘workable’ in the sense that it can be accepted by sovereign states, and ‘effective’ in the sense that it ultimately stabilizes the global climate. 

The entire book can be found online and downloaded for free here.