Why the global retreat from climate alarmism is a good thing

If you listen to the media, a green automotive future has arrived and a tsunami of electric cars is out­selling petrol and diesel around the world, transforming the planet and solving climate change.

We need a reality check. Battery-powered electric vehicles are fairly popular in urban China and California, as well as a few countries that heavily subsidise their drivers. But globally, fewer than 0.3 per cent of all cars are pure electric, and across Europe, BMW says, customers don’t want them.

The Copenhagen protocol will not succeed unless China and India sign up, but bribing these nations to take part is counterproductive  Björn Lomborg, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 February 2009 This December, global leaders will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate a new climate change pact to reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the way that it has been set up, it will inevitably fail. The best hope is that we use this lesson finally to deal with this issue in a smarter fashion.

by Wayne Visser on behalf of Cambridge Programme for Industry for the Cambridge Top 50 Sustainability Books project, 26 August 2008

WV: So if you're ready I'll kick off with a question. It's really just a reflective this on what brought you to write the book in the first place and how has it been received since.