How to tackle global warming - and how not to

When you go shopping – whether at the corner store, or at the ritzy Galeries Lafayette or Printemps here in Paris – you expect to know what you’re spending and what you’re getting.

Strangely, when it comes to global climate treaties, our politicians like to commit to hugely expensive policies without even acknowledging that they come with a price tag.

2013-11-14 Today’s policies to combat climate change cost much more than the benefits they produce. Unfortunately, bad political choices often make these policies even less cost-effective.  Consider the European Union’s 20-20 policy, which targets a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions below 1990 levels by 2020. It is important to examine this approach, not only because the EU is pursuing the world’s largest and most ambitious climate policy, but also because other climate policies suffer from similar shortcomings. (...) 

In the build-up to Paris, activists and celebrities have been banging the drum for action. Part of this has involved talking up the effects of global warming.

US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' warns that “climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism,” while Prince Charles believes that “one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria” is global warming’s effects