Att lägga tusentals miljarder på enorma, hastigt genomförda utsläppsminskningar är en ohållbar, ineffektiv och västvärldscentrerad lösning. Vi borde istället göra de gröna alternativen billigare än de fossila, skriver Bjørn Lomborg.

Across the world, politicians are going out of their way to promise fantastically expensive climate policies. US President Joe Biden has promised to spend US$500 billion each year on climate policies－about 13 percent of the entire federal revenue. And the European Union has vowed to spend 25 percent of its budget to combat climate change.

The Biden Administration wants to spend the equivalent of $1,500 per American per year on climate policies such as electric cars. At the same time, more than half of US citizens are unwilling to pay even $24 per year.

Bjorn Lomborg argues in an interview with Fox News that this is unsustainable. Instead, we need a cheaper and more effective climate approach, focusing on ramping up green R&D. If we can innovate the price of green energy below fossil fuels, countries such as India and China could also afford to lower their emissions.

Across the world, politicians are now promising climate policies costing tens of trillions of dollars – money we don’t have and resources that are desperately needed elsewhere.

Yet, climate campaigners tell us, if we don’t spend everything on climate now, nothing else matters, because climate change threatens our very civilization. As President Biden says: climate change is "an existential threat".

The Texas rolling black-outs have become a Rorschach test where everyone sees what they’d like to see. Wind skeptics point out that wind turbines are frozen, renewable energy campaigners point out that gas, coal and nuclear power plants also cut out.  But the much more fundamental point is: Not having enough power when you need it can be deadly. This is relevant for the attempt by the Biden administration to get rid of fossil fuels in the electricity sector by 2035. It will create a lot of problems, especially if it is focused on intermittent renewables.

John Kerry's private jet trip across continents to accept a climate award shows that we will never fix climate change with 'just manage with less' slogans.

Kerry is really honestly showing us that you can’t just ask people to cut back on flying, cut back on driving, cut back on heating and cooling the house. Dealing with climate change is a lot harder than the slogans would suggest. And even if we all stopped flying and switched to electric cars, the climate impact would be very small. 

As you get more renewables, energy for the consumer becomes costlier.

In Germany, consumers had to subsidize green energy to the tune of 31 billion euros last year. Little surprise, Germans now pay the highest electricity prices in the world.

Across the world, politicians are going out of their way to promise fantastically expensive climate policies. President Biden has promised to spend $500 billion each year on climate — about 13 percent of the entire federal revenue. The European Union will spend 25 percent of its budget on climate.

Most rich countries now promise to go carbon-neutral by mid-century. Shockingly, only one country has made a serious, independent estimate of the cost: New Zealand found it would optimistically cost 16 percent of its GDP by then, equivalent to the entire current New Zealand budget.

I joined Sky News Australia earlier today to discuss Joe Biden's climate policy proposals and commitments to net-zero emissions from politicians around the world.

Joe Biden's climate alarm is poorly founded.

Take hurricanes. Last year, you undoubtedly heard that climate change made hurricanes “record-setting.” Actually, 2020 was above average in the North Atlantic partly because of the natural La Niña phenomenon, and only record-setting in that satellites could spot more storms.