Riz Khan Show at Al Jazeera, July 23, 2007

Bjorn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, talks about the costs and benefits of attacking climate change with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Lomborg argues that we should always be aware of tradeoffs and effectiveness when assessing policies to reduce global warming. He advocates for realistic solutions that consider the potential to improve human life in other ways. He is skeptical of the potential to move away from fossil fuels and argues that geo-engineering and adaptation may be the most effective ways to cope with climate change.

Watching the news, you get the sense that climate change is making the planet unlivable. We are bombarded with images of floods, droughts, storms and wildfires.

Bjørn Lomborg, a Danish writer and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist,11 argues that if imposed today, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 (one goal of the Obama administration) would cost trillions of dollars and inflict more pain than climate change itself. Not surprisingly, governments won’t agree to those costs, he says, which is why international meetings like the Copenhagen conference fail every time they’re held. “One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome,” Lomborg says.