Net Zero 'scare campaign' ignores bigger global issues

COPENHAGEN – As George W. Bush and Tony Blair learned the hard way, the public does not take kindly to being misled about the nature of potential threats. The after-the-fact revelation that the reasons for invading Iraq were vastly exaggerated – and in some cases completely fabricated – produced an angry backlash that helped toss the Republicans out of power in the United States in 2008 and may do the same to Britain’s Labour Party later this year. A similar shift in global public opinion is occurring with respect to climate change. (...) 

Environmental author Bjorn Lomborg says world leaders went “out of their way to scare us” at the recent climate change summit.“They both went out of their way to scare us, but also in some ways, it was a repeat of the last 30 years of climate policy,” Mr Lomborg told Sky News host Chris Smith. “Namely, let’s make grand promises for the future, and certainly in the past we’ve then seen, not much is going to happen”.

Bjorn Lomborg joined The Economist's podcast The Economist asks to discuss the question: "Poverty, health, education or climate change: where should governments spend their money?" Within each of these areas, some solutions are better than others: shouldn't we do the smart ones first?