Policy Innovations contributor Roy Morrison weighs in on alternative global warming solutions and related policies to finance them. He calls for a 20-year plan to transition
to renewable resources:The popular wisdom is that a global emissions reduction agreement through cap and
trade or taxation is humanity's last best hope before the consequences of melting ice and methane hydrates make irrelevant
further human efforts to stop global warming. If that's true, we are in grave danger indeed. We should instead focus on
a workable global investment and
jobs plan to build the global renewable resource infrastructure that can sustain global prosperity while slashing global greenhouse
gas emissions.
The plan will draw upon existing and emergent renewable energy technologies. These technologies
range from the now-familiar wind turbines, photovoltaic solar arrays, hydropower dams, and geothermal plants, to new solar
concentrators and medium-temperature geothermal systems running
organic Rankine cycle generators. These will be combined with electric and renewable-fueled hybrid vehicles using their lithium batteries for energy
storage. Renewable systems are characterized by rapidly improving energy conversion efficiency and
declining cost.
We should understand that the problem is not that we do not have sufficient renewable resources. This is a plan
that will create millions and millions of new jobs and global markets for our products and at the same time free us from the
fossil fuel curse and its economic, ecological, and security threats..